How Criminals Are Making Millions Counterfeiting Prescription Drugs
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- Опубликовано: 10 дек 2023
- CNBC investigates a shadowy network of criminals targeting life-saving prescription medications for HIV from companies like Gilead Sciences and Johnson & Johnson who buy the medications from patients desperate for cash. They then go to gray market distributors who sell the medications to pharmacies at a huge discount. A major case highlighted in the story in which some $230 million in counterfeit pills were distributed throughout the U.S., was run like an organized crime group, according to authorities. The kingpin, who was sentenced to a 15-year prison term, used the proceeds from the counterfeiting ring to fly to Las Vegas on private jets and gamble in high-stakes poker tournaments. In surveillance video, he’s seen with wads of cash at a casino. In an exclusive interview at Gilead headquarters, the company’s head of anti-counterfeiting and global product security details how drugs are diverted with fake labels and bottle caps and sold for less than $200 on the street, taking us inside the company’s “war room” where confiscated counterfeit pills and paperwork are stored. A convicted felon who got rich in from the counterfeit pill business explains how it all works and CNBC obtains a never before seen hidden camera video in which trio of counterfeiters is shown altering pill bottles in an apartment.
Correspondent: Contessa Brewer
Senior Investigative Producer: Scott Zamost
Editor: Allison Stedman
Animation: Michael Schwartz
Photojournalists: Duane Poquis, Jacob Jimenez, Oscar Molina, Marco Mastrorilli, Roger Prehoda, Steve Weiss
Audio: Steve Theroux, Lori Smith, Juan Merlo
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How Big Pharma Is Fighting Counterfeit Drugs
A problem that wouldn’t exist in a healthcare system with supply chains that aren’t ridiculously complex for the sole purpose of squeezing money out of the most vulnerable members of society 👍
Exactly... You got one screwed up system down there
Thank god I am Canadian 🇨🇦
Written liek a chat gpt script
You mean, those same desperate people who are selling this medication for money?
Was thinking the same. This always happen when the door get narrow. People would always find any opening to profit
@@smorris281should u blame them or the license distributer that created this business?
Market just react to demand.the demand is created by high prices created by pharmacy.
Now government have to do patch work to broken system
At almost 3k a bottle who is the real criminal here.
Especially given that development of those drugs were funded by taxpayers in the first place!!!
They give it away for free lol, the Gilead savings card has saved me so much in cop pays
Big pharma is suddenly concerned about public safety when their bottom line is affected but not when they were pushing oxys.
Exactly
Oxys Are Good
Pushing Oxys?
How about humans take responsibility for themselves rather than blame oxys and pharmas!
I’m not a fan of them, but my god, stop blaming everyone but the junkie!
Exactly. 😊
Wait so I can sell to a wholesaler??? Lol
There's the problem
Here is what’s wild, nobody is counterfeiting cheap generics. All of this happening because drugs are overpriced.
What really weird is how that guy was putting Seroquel in the bottles instead of the prescribed drug. Seroquel is expensive. I take it for sleep. Now I have to get the generic.
@@lynsylva-bb6ss yeah that was sus.
Why the hell are pharmacies purchasing perscriptions from sketchy third party dealers in the first place???
The discounts
Wait for it…wait for it…MONEYYYYYY SWEEET SWEET MONEYYYYY SHEKELS
Exactly! This explains my issue with Rite Aid medication a while back. I swear their Adderall was fake Aurobindo had to stop making it, so maybe it really was from the manufacturer & they just did a horrible job. But it was bad.
Exactly
they're not their wholesaler is buying from 3rd party and selling to the pharmacy without the pharmacy knowing
$230m for 80,000 bottles. Nearly $3000 per bottle.
That's criminal.
Yes that’s how much most HIV prevention and treatment drugs cost without insurance. That’s why I’m stuck on the generic Truvada because my insurance won’t cover Descovy and there’s no way I can afford that. If we made these drugs readily available we could end AIDS once and for all.
@scottmac I don't know if this is true or not, but knowing pharmaceutical companies I don't doubt it. Supposedly, they've found multiple somewhat cures for cancer. They were all bought by these companies and then hidden away because "treating a disease is more profitable than curing a disease "
Why are you taking that drug? Are you at risk for contracting hiv? @@scottmac
@@scottmacWell, if you don't engage in the activity that you're doing and not being a degenerate, you wouldn't have to pay anything..
Wasn't truvada like $3500 at one point? How the hell is it cheaper now?
You know your healthcare system is screwed up if people need to make the choice between selling their medicines to stay alive, and taking their medicines to stay alive.
How is that healthcare system problem?
@@smorris281are you asking because you don’t understand or because you’re stupid?
What are you talking about? Y’all say anything for likes.
Healthcare systems cause the prices of medicine to be high. Patients sometimes choose between eating and taking meds
This is just a symptom of our dystopian healthcare system.
100% correct. Look at the idiots in this video, if these room-temperature IQ people are making hundreds of millions of dollars, there is a problem with the system. This isn't about sophisticated criminals, this is a horrible government system that allows fraud at the cost of taxpayers and more importantly, sick and dying people. But this video is set up to make it look like it's the criminals that are the issue, not the system
It's all a problem with capitalism.
The almighty dollar is god now and both parties are worshipers
@@b469b yes, both republicans and democrats are right wing parties that work for billionaires.
@@WithoutRemorse12what do plan to do, get rid of currency altogether?? Do we go back to bartering system?
If that's your solution fine, but understand Capatilism is not the problem & the version of Corporate Capatilism that we have is though.
You've been sold a lie that's going to trick you into giving the people screwing you over MORE POWER.
If that's not a warning that the whole medical system needs to change, I don't know what would be!
"Make someone else pay for it!"
Agreed!
Get rid of the government laws and regulations SO THAT pharmaceutical companies can sell directly to patients and pharmacies!
It's won't change. People are stupid. They'll forget in 2 hrs this story
I pay $28USD for 3 bottles of Truvada in Australia online. Or $87 for 3 bottles in a pharmacy.
When medications are cheap here, no one needs to think about buying counterfeit etc. The US is a mess.
Unfortunately, US customers subsidize the rest of the world’s cheap drugs. Subsequently we have to deal with the “mess” you are talking about.
@@RashmiSaid lol rubbish, it’s a free market. If those pharmaceutical companies were going broke, I’d agree with you. But they make record profits and invest very little into R&D based on the percentage they earn.
@@RashmiSaid Yeaaaa, no that's not how that works.
Maybe your drug is fake?
@@StevieCooper You are definitely correct that Pharma loves their profits. My point is that they could still fulfill their greedy dreams by charging all users a more moderate price. Instead, they gouge US customers, while discounting their prices everywhere else. I have no issues subsidizing poor countries, but rich countries are also being subsidized. Make no mistake, if Pharma couldn’t bring in their huge profits, they would not bother to produce the drugs that people need to survive.
Their "top concern" isn't safety - it's twofold: 1. Liability, 2. Profits
If they didn't charge people out the ass for medication not even worth one fourth the retail price maybe this wouldn't be such a big issue 🤔
That's what happens when dope is legalized and controlled.
Can you rename this “how legal fraud is fighting illegal fraud”?
Top comment
Top comment
Senator Rick Scott was the CEO of a healthcare company that was accused of a 1.7bil fraud- Scott later become Governor of Florida then a Florida Senator
Holy
Oh yes, I've kept up with him and he's one of the magats who wants to do away with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. He's a charmer. 🙄
@@PAMELAPORTER-ci7mr kind of a paradox no? Not having Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid would mean less money for medical frauds like this...
Democrat Joe Biden, was supposed to be running a country, when he gave Ukraine, over $150 BILLION AMERICAN TAXPAYER DOLLARS for NOTHING in return whatsoever.
Oh what's that?
A Ukraine companie hired Hunter to be on the board of the company to have access to his father Joe?
Then on video Joe Biden ACTUALLY told his FRAUD using TAXPAYER monies as leverage to get the Ukraine prosecutor fired so his son WOULDN'T be investigated.
Find me ANYTHING bigger than the $150 BILLION Joe Biden just gave Ukraine out of nowhere to fight Russia for what now again?
The biggest villian here is the Big Pharmaceutical.
No. It's us. We don't want government healthcare.
Its not about safety...its about profit!
big pharma in us has always been that way
So wait - each bottle is $2875? (230 mil/80,000 bottles) That's outrageous!
1795
And because they’re so expensive the pharmacies don’t stock them. You may have to go without your medication putting you at risk.
Paid for by the Govt in sure
Yes HIV MEDS and specialty meds are expensive
All of the heterosexuals in this comment section realizing the true price of HIV prevention is lowkey amusing… I thought y’all knew 😭
yeah that's what happens when you price a months worth of a drug at thousands of dollars, while it costs a less than 5% that in neighboring Canada
*It's scary that cancer and HIV patients are going without their meds. especially when HIV meds now stop the transmission of the disease also*
Risking your life for $100 a bottle is just crazy, I'm sure lots of the meds are actually stolen
Stop fornicating and it shouldn't be threat for you lol.
*If the drugs were not so expensive to start with the problem would not be as big. greed and high prices fuel black markets*
Majority of Americans are perpetually broke - even medication getting cheaper or free wouldn’t solve the problem
I was going to say this too. Well said! Big pharma is a major player in this problem with their greed!
This is terrifying on so many levels. People can die from this. On both sides. And we, the American tax payer, are being charged 3 times for the same thing. This country is a mess.
Off to Canada I go
@@bigdaddyapethey're no better right now.
Sounds like this problem has less to do with criminals and more to do with the abhorrently high cost of medications in the USA.
I can only imagine the devastating health consequences for the patients. Scary.
What is sad is people will not take their medications
Gilead the moral voice of society. 😂
The fraud alone in US Healthcare is $3-500B/year.
The aspect described in the video is a tough one under any system but audits of distributors & legislating they only buy directly from manufacturers along with audits of pharmacies would be a start.
Frustrating that all he gets is a 15 year sentence which is the same amount handed out to a single person slinging crack in the ghetto back in the day.
Ya that's insane
As a citizens of a country that it's medical bill were very costly for the citizens, this is very educative, and yet mind-blowing.
Still can't believe that something like this could happen in a nation whose probably the most advanced medical systems
What do you think pays for those advanced medical systems?
None of this would happen if medication wasn’t so insanely expensive in America.
Fun fact... cheap Mexican prescription drugs that are legit are also considered "counterfeited drugs".
My old coworker would go to Mexico and buy insulin cheap for his wife and he sold viagra from Mexico that tested as legit. He sold insulin as low as $15 a vial that in the US sold for $300
A part of the reason big pharma doesnt like this and labels it as ‘fraud’ is because it cuts into their profits
exactly. if you listen closely. The pills are real. just repacked
Damn good hustle n helping people who need it!!!
$15 is still overpriced. It's like $6 a vial in Australia, and that's AUD
@LennyMill 1600 kilometers. For a round trip of 1000 miles, which is over 1600 kilometers, $15 a vial is reasonable. We can't bring these drugs in by bulk, and the United States is massive... in fact, my regular commute to work on a light day is over 100 miles. With fuel costs high like they were, we were barely breaking even on the insulin. The money maker was really the viagra.
So the pharmacy bills Medicare/Medicaid 3k+ then buys it back at discount, then resells it for 3k+ and bills Medicaid/Medicare again.
Theoretically a pharmacy could conspire with a distributor to resell the same batch of drugs over and over again without much notice.
Counterfeit ???? ITS RESELLED
They are still not as criminal as the pharmaceutical companies
stupid comment. These people are convincing patients dying of AIDS to not take their medication. That’s abhorrent.
Greed all around. The patient loses. There's no collective will to address the broken healthcare and insurance systems.
Call me crazy but wouldn't this not be a problem if cancer and HIV meds weren't wildly overpriced in America? A lot of these treatments you can get internationally for a literal fraction of the cost
Seems pretty obvious that the "wholesalers" who buy from random folks are the ones who are the criminals here. The fact that a wholesaler exists is insane. It should be going straight from the drug company to the pharmacy. WTF are there middle men?
This only happens if the medicines were overpriced in the first place
Had to laugh when they said safety concerns were more than loss of revenue for the company. Please
This needs to go viral.
4:10 stop the supply chain. it is the licensed distributors that buys from aggregators who entice perpetuating the cycle
I suspect I’ve been getting counterfeit medication from Walgreens, I fill out the med watch form on the FDA website. Maybe somebody will look into it at some point.
But why are warehouses and distributors purchasing pharmaceuticals from dudes off the street? Don’t they have sales reps or someone they purchased from directly from the drug company? It seems like we could fix the problem by not allowing wholesalers to buy from random dudes off the street
Yeah if I didnt see this on the News I wouldnt believe it could be true. This is insane I would think they would be required to purchase it from legitimate pharmecutical companies.
I think the wholesalers are random dudes on the street. They probably falsify their credentials and pharmacies are too lazy to look into it.
What makes you think you’re getting counterfeit?
The legit distributors should be charged and fined for not buying from reputable dealers or manufacturers. The people who are selling their medications, no matter how stick or dying they are, need to be charged too!
If people bought meds with their own money, I dont think they'd be doing this. It's the fact insurance pays for it; it's indirect insurance fraud.
Although what he did isn’t right……The pharmacy should be required to buy directly from the manufacturer. Or just make medication more affordable. The prices are ridiculous
Exactly.
It feels like ten twenty years ago but now a days every one was in on it.
So if the drugs were not ridiculously expensive and so overpriced, there would not be a counterfeit market 🤔🙄😏
Does anyone have sympathy for big pharmaceutical?
The real 😂crime here is the sky high prices of drugs that are inflated!
Why not have the patient have these specialized drugs directly by the manufacturer?
Great reporting by the way
It wouldn’t make much of a difference. Insurance companies already mandate such a plan.
I hope these companies go out business. They have no right to charge this much for medicines
Watch Bosch Season 5. The entire season was about this exact type of crime. Great season too!
The drug companies should never buy prescription drugs from patients under any circumstances, period.
That idea is just asking for trouble.
Yeah this is insane, if I can’t return a prescription to the pharmacy when it causes terrible side effects and I’m not going to finish it, how is it OK for some random dude to sell random meds to distributors to sell back to the pharmacy.
I think of the same thing but don't believe it's a good deal due to quality control. Buy from random people and sell back to the pharmacy? God, if this actually works, the USA is in big trouble.
Dude the drug manufacturers itself are crappy people who sell these drugs for lots & lots of money to the pharmacy.
And why is that guy (whose face is covered) is free when he should be in prison for what he did???
How can we as the end consumer even know what we’re getting from the PHARMACY of all places is the legitimate and correct drug? This is terrifying. Why have all this regulation around prescription drugs if it’s clearly not being enforced?!!
People will do anything to survive.
So would i.
Imagine if big pharma cared this much when the Oxycontin epidemic occured.
The video should be called "How Big Pharma Is Fighting to Protect their Profits"
And you think that 'poker daddy' is a nobel person by ripping off the poor?
You can see the phrama rep unable to hold back her smirk as she says they never offer discounts on their $3000/bottle medications.
*Their
Your comment should be called I don’t know the difference between there and their or they’re!
@@legendarylano4745 Haha, you just owned a 'native'
Why is a pharmacy buying drugs from randoms ?
if the pharmaceuticals were serious they should make their drugs cheap and not a viable target for counterfeiting/profiting off of in the black market
Why would distributors be buying drugs from people on street that fell off a truck.
GILEAD? How do I know if I’ve been receiving fake meds? Who do I sue
lol hearing this lady try and defend the cost of the medication makes this guys sound like a Robin Hood.
Pushing pills, the distributors needs to be charged
5:40 expensive and life-sustaining does not even belong in the same sentence 🤦🏾♂️
I was going to comment on the fact that the pharmaceutical companies are only complaining that someone else is tapping into their fraud. I saw from the other comments that everyone already knows that.
she said a “larger than life gambler” 😂😂
There won’t be a story like this if distributors give a cut of the counterfeit drug sales to gilead. Also, if patients sell to gilead instead of distributor, then distributor will still need to buy drugs from gilead. I doubt they will still point a lady from their company to investigate this. They only do this because their cake is touched.
If we had some of the lower prescription prices people wouldn't be doing this. All doctors and pharmaceutical companies try to take as much as they can from people
Jesus. This is crazy.
I took the same medication for years….it was a name brand drug and then one day my doctor said they were now offering the generics. The medication was worth $2600 and my insurance covered all but $60. So I paid that every month. The new “generic” version was a $20 copay…..so I got the generic version for about 6mo. My insurance will cover a name brand but ONLY if a generic isn’t available…..so after a few months I realized the medication that worked so wonderfully for my pain that I only had to take 2x a day was now only working 6hr instead of 12hr. Our doctor was getting complaints from tons of patients and finally found a different 12hr time release med that we could switch to…..and once again we are right as rain.
I wonder if that medication was cut in half in the dosage from the original? It’s just crazy. The original drug maker doesn’t even make it anymore. It’s like they did it only as long as they could collect the profit and once generics came along they just let them take over. Eventually the generic was also discontinued. Just gone.
It’s wild.
good thing there are systems in place to make sure that doesn't happen🤣
This is why we need to overhaul our social security benefits program. People on SS only getting small monthly payments under $1,500. If SSI would rise to around $2,000 a month & you live within your means you shouldn't have any problems on making it month to month.
I live in Missouri & receive around $1,200 a month, live in a small 2 bdrm home, paid for, drive a 2005 Envoy SUV, paid for, don't go out, don't go on any vacations & still have problems paying for medications & food for the month. You'd think I would be living up my golden years, but I'm not. I'm just settling in my house waiting to die. What a life & it's depressing on a good day.
I'm disabled @ no fault of mine, worked since I was 16yo, had a great job in the Healthcare community, laboratory technician, had to drain my 401k just to be able to buy food & medications. As the old saying goes ***LIVES A B*TCH, THEN YOU DIE!*** I'm starting to believe it, unfortunately.
Prices are so out of control everywhere it's no laughing matter anymore
Or just lower the price of drugs. It would be nice to be able to up social security but lets be honest there isn't enough money to do that right now. America is in massive debt right now and all raising social security would do is put an even larger burden on Americans under the age of 60. You cannot keep shoveling off more and more debt onto the next generation. At some point seniors are going to have to accept the fact that it's their voting that put America in it's current fiscally irresponsible position.
Funny how no one is outraged a bottle of medicine costs $$$. Reminds me of reading a story of a lady who’s kid got sick in Spain and they had to go to the ER and they released him with some medication and the doctor said the medication might be expensive and the mom was expecting $$$ but the doctor said a bottle would be $10-$12.
Wow!!!! This is serious seriously messed up! Rotten to the core!!!!!
Is this why I can't get my pain medication from Walgreens and CVS California
A single bottle of medication is sold for several thousand dollars?
This dude isn't the only crook in this story..
2 questions, why do those poor-looking people do it and why are meds so expensive?
Money money money monet 🎵 🎶 🎵
The poor people do it because they need the cash money. The money that pays for the meds mostly comes from medicare or other insurance, and they value having the cash in hand over having the medication in their bodies because they need to pay for things like food, gas, and rent. Meanwhile the meds are expensive because US healthcare is utter nonsense.
i been a victim of this exact biktarvy scam i went from a healthy hiv patient to non responsive to medication and it nearly cost me my life. it took nearly three years for me to start getting my numbers better and in the right direction after seeing multiple top specialists in the best hospitals in NYC . Folk do your homework about your pharmacy
You can thank our healthcare system for this problem. In a modern society there’s no reason we don’t have free healthcare.
This makes me sick!!!!
At times I have to thank China and India for creating these drugs for so cheap it pays to take a flight to these countries just to pick up the drug. USA and their greed is insane.
I promise you nothing you get from China is what it claims to be. Feel free to move to either country if you hate it so much!
agree with you medicines here are so cheap i was so shocked to know when i googled the prices in usa like daaam how are people even surviving there? medicines are like basic human rights here
@@loki4171 why is it every time someone says ____ is a human right, they are almost always talking about getting things for free? there's almost no such thing as basic human rights because human rights is such a nebulous term that it can mean just about anything. American rights must not require another free citizen's money or labor. Free speech, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble are rights because they do not take another person's time or money. Demanding that something be given to you for free and calling it a human right is basically indentured servitude on that other person.
@@Whiteboykun please first try to understand the difference between luxury and basic human rights ....
@@loki4171 Again: if something requires another entity's labor or money in order to be provided to you, it is not a right. That is a handout, charity, compassion, call it whatever you want - but it's not a right.
Solution is easy... Force wholesale distributors to be more accountable by not allowing them to buy from almost anyone. They should only be allowed to buy from manufacturers or sellers with extensive accountability and credibility. Not Joe Julio aka the aggregator... Usually these wholesalers are run under the umbrella as a liquidation buyer and reseller banner. Prohibit pharmacies from being allowed to buy from anyone.
OMG ….. millions of dollars
This is insane
0:26 Definitely sampling the stash...
Now when you feel “something is wrong “ you should question it???????
Bottles need to be embossed with data like credit cards.
Just shows you there is corruption everywhere
15 YEARS!!!!!!???? Thats ALL???!!! LMAO That's got to be a JOKE!!
Walgreens $5000+ retail priced on prints, and if you need 8 different meds, you in shock.
Crazy!
great video.
When health insurance is free they got no job.
I am recovering addict from these pills any pain killer I was taking it I’m thankful to be alive 🥺 anyone out there suffering from opioid addiction I promise you there is a light at the end of the tunnel and when you pull thru stay in the light it’s so much better here god bless 🙏🏽
Have they called a social worker ?
Everything has been falling apart
How?
Prohibition, combined with the #DEA terrorizing physicians for treating their chronic pain patients, thats how.
The criminals that make the legal ones are even worse.
A problem the pharmaceutical companies created by selling life saving medications at astronomical prices.
And I thought I was going crazy when I noticed my Vyvanse suddenly stopped working
Pay people so they can live. People need money now more than ever, and they are desperate. We have "In God we trust" on the money because the money is the God. Everyone worships at that altar no matter who you are or what religion you are, it seems money is the God that makes you do what you do more than any other God.
It’s not the God you think it is, it’s their own
Oh please, they’re all in on it.