Bogus bird-flu drugs flooding the Internet

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/13538069.htm

In a trend federal authorities call scary, the Internet suddenly is awash with bogus drugs to counter a possible bird-flu pandemic, including counterfeit Tamiflu -- the highly sought-after antiviral agent developed by Gilead Sciences of Foster City.

Hundreds of fake Tamiflu pills sold to U.S. consumers by Asian online entrepreneurs have been seized in South San Francisco over the past month, most recently on Wednesday. They are the first such counterfeits detected in this country.

The week before, the Food & Drug Administration sent warning letters to nine Internet marketers it accused of peddling other phony remedies. Most were dietary supplements that, among other things, claimed to kill the bird-flu virus or provide ``a natural virus shield.''

``These are people who are preying on the heightened concerns of people,'' said David Elder, who directs the FDA's Office of Enforcement. ``It's sad.''

It's also deeply worrisome to Congress, which held a hearing on the counterfeiting of Tamiflu and other drugs in November. Because many of these bogus products likely are being stashed away for possible future use against the bird flu, federal lawmakers fear that the people who buy them may find themselves dangerously unprotected if an outbreak of the virus occurs.


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BIRD FLU TERRORS MOSTLY MYTH

Monday, January 02, 2006 - FreeMarketNews.com

by staff reports

If you have been needing reassurance in the face of the growing official panic about the coming bird flu pandemic, you need to read something with a little less hysteria in it. A case in point would be Michael Fumento's column in Sunday's Washington Times, which goes a long way to allay the fears being formed by the U.S. government and the World Health Organization. As Fumento notes, "The first reason not to panic over Tamiflu is there's no reason to panic over a pandemic. It's true avian influenza type H5N1 is constantly mutating. But the best-kept secret of the flu fright-fest is that it's been doing so since at least 1959 when it was identified in Scottish chickens."