EU Regulators Warn of Counterfeit Copies of Cancer Drug Herceptin

EU regulators have issued a warning that several batches of the cancer medicine Herceptin (trastuzumab) have been “tampered with,” falsified and reintroduced into the supply chain, potentially putting patients at risk.

High-cost cancer medications like Herceptin have become an increasingly tempting target for thieves and counterfeiters in recent years. While they lack the ready market that some drugs like Viagra have, their extraordinary cost means extraordinary paydays. US officials warned of a similar scare in February 2012, when counterfeit copies of Roche’s Avastin (bevacizumab) were found to have infiltrated the US supply chain. Another batch of the counterfeit drug was found in April 2012.

In the wake of those findings, FDA went after more than a dozen physicians, who were blamed for purchasing the Avastin from unauthorized suppliers in the pursuit of higher profit margins.