An BBC Radio 5 investigation has revealed that antiretrovirals supplied at discount prices to African countries were diverted, often before they reached Africa, and sold back to UK drug distributors via a Swiss trader.
Two UK drug distribution companies have already suffered legal action. One company, Dowelhurst, claimed that it did not know that the drugs were destined for Africa and was not alerted by the pricing, suggesting that substantial profits were made further back down the supply chain. However the other distributor, Essex businessman Adam Knight, was fined £50,000 for dealing in medicines without a license. According to BBC Radio 5 he made a profit of £150,000 on discounted drugs intended for Africa.
In both cases it is believed that the diverted products were purchased by UK National Health Service hospitals. Individual hospitals and health care bodies in the UK are responsible for their own local purchases of drugs, and will seek products from a wide range of drug distributors in order to obtain the lowest possible prices. These prices fluctuate frequently, especially for products which can be purchased more cheaply in other European Union countries, so somewhat lower prices would not necessarily arouse suspicion. Drugs packaged in other languages might also fail to arouse suspicion. The United Kingdom has some of the highest drug prices in the European Union.
In the past few years several manufacturers of antiretrovirals have called for stringent precuations to ensure that antiretrovirals are not diverted back into the European market, but during the court case for drug diversion brought against Dowelhurst by GlaxoSmithKline, it emerged that virtually none of the product supplied to African countries had been sold under contracts forbidding resale outside Africa. Manufacturers are now supplying drugs with different packaging and colouring to prevent diversion.