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An Interdisciplinary Research Centre at the University of Cambridge
 
First Annual Cambridge Infectious Diseases Invited Lecture Announced

Dr Paul Newton (Wellcome Trust Overseas Programme, Laos) and Aline Plancon (Interpol) have been invited to Cambridge to discuss the challenges of fake antimicrobial drugs.

The United States Food and Drug Administration estimates that counterfeit pharmaceuticals make up more than 10% of the global medicines market and are present in both industrialized and developing countries. It is estimated that up to 25% of the medicines consumed in poor countries are counterfeit or substandard.

The consequences of counterfeit drugs are enormous: provision of counterfeit vaccines and drugs is not only essentially mass murder, but also causes huge trust problems with drug companies, doctors and pharmacies in populations that receive them, and the techniques used by criminals to mimic real drugs are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

Dr Paul Newton (Wellcome Trust Overseas Programme, Laos) and Aline Plancon (Interpol) have conducted shocking studies showing the high levels of fake drugs that are currently in circulation in developing countries. They have been invited by Cambridge Infectious Diseases to give a lecture on this subject, to be held on 31st May 2012.