Drug safety. Opaque supply chain
operations in the pharmaceutical industry
and online pharmacies create
opportunities for unethical suppliers
to produce adulterated or counterfeit
drugs. According to the National
Association of Boards of Pharmacy,
counterfeit drugs generated over $75
billion in revenue in 2010 and caused
over 100,000 deaths worldwide.4 For
example, Baxter’s contract manufacturer
Changzhou SPL-CZ classified
itself as a chemical plant so that it
was not under the scrutiny of Chinese
State Food and Drug Administration.
In 2007, SPL-CZ used chondroitin sulfate
(a cheap and unsafe substance) to
produce heparin active pharmaceutical
ingredients (API) for Baxter and
14 other U.S. companies. This adulterated
API was then used to produce
the blood-thinning drug Heparin that
resulted in several deaths and major
recalls in 2008.