PSI has collected data on counterfeiting, illegal diversion and theft incidents for eight consecutive years. The yearly totals are shown on the adjacent bar chart as of December 31, 2009.
PSI recognizes that improved data collection, more law enforcement efforts and greater public awareness have all contributed to the identification of a larger number of incidents. However, it can also be argued that this increase in incidents exposes the previously unknown extent of criminal activity in pharmaceutical crimes and that criminal activity is on the rise.
To better understand the magnitude of the counterfeiting incidents in CY 2009, PSI continued to tracked the quantity of drugs seized in each law enforcement action. Any incident which involved the seizure of more than 1,000 dosage units was classified as a commercial incident. Those incidents involving less than 1,000 dosage units were classified as non-commercial.
In CY 2009, 978 counterfeiting incidents involved either customs seizures or police/health inspector raids. Nearly half of the seizures made by law enforcement were confirmed as being of "commercial" size. As the adjacent pie-chart shows, commercial seizures reached forty-eight percent (48%), which for the year was seven percent (7%) greater than in CY 2008.
