Combating counterfeit medications: the California pharmacist perspective

The production and distribution of counterfeit medications has become a significant global public health issue and though not as rampant in the United States as in other parts of the world, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has seen a 10-fold increase in the number of cases investigated. The purpose of this study was to examine California pharmacist knowledge of counterfeit medications, impact of technology and barriers to pharmacist involvement, and potential roles pharmacists can undertake. Our results showed that 59.3% of respondents believe counterfeit drugs pose a problem to the profession, but most had little to no experience with counterfeit medications. For potential sources, 44.5% believe patient use of Internet pharmacies, 39.4% indicated professional counterfeiters, and 16.1% indicated importation. Pharmacist agreed lack of knowledge (46.8%) and resources (82.5%) were barriers to detecting the presence of counterfeits. Half of respondents were award of the CA board of pharmacy's (BOP) future use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, but 43% did not believe RFID would be effective. Most pharmacists indicated lack of knowledge regarding new technologies but seemed willing to learn.