Recently released mid-year intellectual property rights seizure statistics reveal that the value of counterfeit pharmaceuticals seized has increased by 660 percent in the past year. While China was the source of over 80 percent of U.S. Customs and Border Protection product seizure last year, the other top 5 leading sources of seized products are Pakistan, Egypt, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

According to a recent report comparing Canadian and European healthcare systems, Canada ranked 23rd out of 30 countries. When the quality of care delivered was compared with the cost of providing that care, Canada fell to the very bottom of the list in terms of value for money.

The World Health Organization (WHO), which has been intensely debating intellectual property (IP) rights issues, has restructured its management of the issues, elevating IP to the director general’s office. This move follows the close of the second meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (IGWG), which adjourned with no agreed strategy or plan of action amidst concerns raised by patient groups that the issue has become polarized and that the IGWG process has gone off-track.

According to a report recently released by the Government Accountability Office, over 2,000 foreign drug manufacturers subject to inspection by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration may never have been visited by agency inspectors.

A Congress out of touch with American consumers is considering making it easier to import drugs from other countries into the US. Yet according to recent data, internet drug sales from Canada have dropped 80 percent over the last 3 years. Growing concerns over the safety of mail-order drug imports and better access to drug benefits through programs like Medicare part D have caused many of the larger Canadian mail order pharmacies to close their doors.