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Drug Busters: Tracking Down Counterfeiters

Novartis deploys a global team to track down counterfeit drugs and help authorities prosecute counterfeiters.

Sometimes Novartis performs its investigations jointly with authorities; other times not. "Sometimes we do it independently and call authorities when we have everything on a silver platternames of the violators, locations, what time they go to lunch, what time they open their plant to manufacture," says Christian. "Counterfeit cases are all the same, whether cigarettes, pharmaceuticals or DVDs; you're trying to get back to the source, always working your way back to the plant. The idea isn't just to arrest people who do it, who have a case or trunk full of them, it's to get back to the plant. That's a success, when you put a plant out of business."

It helps to have connections. Roman, for example, has a long history of working in Latin America, first with the Secret Service (in the Puerto Rico office with Christian at one time) and now as head of security in that region for Novartis. That experience has given him a leg up on developing key informants and investigators in the region, particularly in Colombia, where Novartis was able to dismantle 26 labs where fake drugs were made last year. In discussing Colombia, Roman says, "I have an excellent in-house investigator and excellent sources of information, former counterfeiters who have decided that it's better to work on the right side of the law than the wrong side. I also have good cooperation with authorities."

2. Cooperation with other pharmaceutical and consumer goods companies.

Since its founding in 1996, PSI has continued to be one of the primary means by which pharmaceutical companies work together to combat counterfeiting. "It has grown into a fairly effective arm of supplying information about counterfeiting and coordinating information among security departments," says Christian.

PSI's members include 19 security chiefs and 21 companies overall, Christian says. The group, based near Washington, D.C., supports professional organizations in the pharmacy industry and serves both as an information source for health, regulatory and law enforcement agencies and for its members: Companies submit information about counterfeit products, arrests, seizures and other intelligence into a centralized database hosted by PSI. Member companies can pose requests for general information about counterfeiting issues through PSI. (If a member company, say, Pfizer, wants information about a case from Novartis, it contacts Novartis directly.) Cooperation is voluntary, and while some member companies are more forthcoming than others, Christian says the arrangement works because the security executives share a common interest in fighting counterfeiting.