There is no question America’s consumption of pharmaceuticals is increasing. In 2006, prescription sales in the US pharmaceutical market had risen by 8.3% and a report of further growth is expected this year. With the industry expanding, so must methods to thwart the counterfeit drug market.
On average 10% of the world’s drug supply is fake or counterfeit, and Americans purchased 44% of all pharmaceuticals sold last year. While considered secure, if only 1% of the US supply was counterfeit it would equal 34.2 million new fraudulent prescriptions circulating within the nation. The number would be approximately one counterfeit medicine for every nine American citizens.
The World Health Organization’
A study by the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, cited by the WHO estimates the number of counterfeits will climb to be a $75 billion industry by the year 2010, representing a 92% increase from 2005. John Lundquist, XStream Systems’ VP of Business Development states “As the threat of consumers being harmed by counterfeit drugs grows, we need to also increase the number of safeguards put into place. The XT250 System is the very beginning of a new generation of necessary anti-counterfeiting solutions.”
