From the December 19, 2005 issue of BioCentury, a biotechnology industry publication available only by subscription, comes a story entitled “FDA seizes imported drugs.”

FDA said that in 1,700 parcels intercepted at three U.S. airports over a few days in August, only 15% of drugs that were promoted as “Canadian” actually originated in Canada. The agency said many of the drugs were not adequately labeled in English to assure safe and effective use, and that 32 of the pharmaceuticals sampled were determined to be counterfeit. The agency did not say how many drugs were sampled. FDA said the findings suggest that drugs ordered from Internet sites that consumers believe to be Canadian are not drugs of known safety and efficacy.