We’re all fairly accustomed to the idea of counterfeit goods made in the far East being passed off as the real thing in Western countries, but we tend to think of them as being things like designer clothing brands or consumer electronics.

The trouble with those items is that they’re bulky, still moderately expensive to produce, and easily spotted as fakes by someone with a sharp eye… which may explain why the new fakes of choice for criminal cartels shipping to the UK are pharmaceuticals. [image by amayzun]

The drugs in question have been so well cloned that they’ve even found their way into chemists and doctor’s surgeries, and their high price-tags in the UK market ensure there’s a good profit to be made – which suggests the problem will spread to other countries, too. Will the counterfeit drugs market ever eclipse the illegal drugs market?