Could the massive closure of pharmacies worsen the fentanyl crisis? Experts warn of environment creating ‘breeding ground’ for counterfeit, laced pills

Experts warn that more people could be exposed to fake pills potentially containing deadly substances due to mass pharmacy closures.

Roei Ganzarski, who runs a company that detects counterfeit drugs, said many patients were now forced to fill their prescriptions online.

This creates a “breeding ground” for counterfeit pills, he said, because it increases the risk that patients will turn to cheaper third-party websites that may sell pills containing “potentially deadly substances.” These include fentanyl, a drug that already kills tens of thousands of Americans each year through accidental overdose.

Major pharmacy chains, including Rite Aid and CVS, are closing more than 1,500 locations across the United States, particularly in low-income neighborhoods and rural areas, leaving millions of Americans in “pharmacy deserts.” .

Mr Ganzarski, who runs Washington-based health technology company Alitheon, told Fox News: “When you go digital, you just don’t know who you’re ordering from or what you’re actually getting and yet you put in your body.

“Patients might think, ‘Oh, look, I can buy it from this company in Canada or Taiwan and it’s cheaper.’

“They might not even know who it is, but hey, it says the name of their medicine and it’s a lot cheaper.”

He added: “Bad actors can get their hands on a surplus of old pills that were supposed to be destroyed or thrown away, then change the date and ship them.

‘[Patients could also receive pills where] there is literally nothing there. You just take a pill that is a placebo, and you don’t understand why your condition isn’t improving.

He said shopping at large pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens or local online pharmacies is safe.

But there are concerns about third-party pharmacies that are not based in the United States, he said.

Authorities are working to take down fraudulent websites, but new sites can easily be created to sell the drugs.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that the number of overdoses caused by fake pills more than doubled between the third quarter of 2019 and the fourth quarter of 2021, from 2% to 4.7%.

The overdose death crisis in the United States is driven by fentanyl, responsible for eight out of 10 deaths, which illicit manufacturers mix with substances to give users a more intense high.

But the drug can be deadly, even in small quantities, while many users are unaware that their drugs contain the substance.

There are now fears that more people may be unwittingly exposed to the drug through counterfeit pills sold in pharmacy deserts, further increasing the number of overdose deaths.

Rite Aid plans to close 150 of its 2,100 U.S. locations after the drugstore chain filed for bankruptcy earlier this month.

The company failed to settle hundreds of lawsuits accusing it of overprescribing opioids and struggled to keep up with the competition.

CVS is preparing to close the doors to 900 of its stores by the end of 2024, or 10% of all its stores, as part of its online strategy.

And Walgreens is also expected to close 150 of its stores by summer 2024, citing reduced profits due to falling demand for Covid vaccines and tests.

A large number of pharmacy chains that have reduced their locations have left millions of people living in areas where it is difficult to obtain medications, areas known as pharmaceutical deserts, according to JAMA.

“By our estimates, about one in four neighborhoods is a pharmacy desert across the country,” Dima Qato, an associate professor at the University of Southern California, told the Washington Post.

“These closures disproportionately affect communities that need pharmacies the most.

America remains in the grip of an overdose crisis, with more than 10,000 people dying each month from drug overdoses, figures show.

The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that about 112,000 people died of drug overdoses in the year through May 2023, up slightly from the previous month’s estimate. .

That amounts to nearly 10,000 deaths per month, which experts say is the equivalent of a plane full of Americans crashing and burning almost every day.

The overdose crisis is fueled by fentanyl, responsible for about eight in 10 overdose deaths, which is 100 times more potent than morphine but can be deadly even in very small doses.