The Times of London has an investigative article on the counterfeit drug industry in China.

Due to the lack of oversight during the creation of fake pharmaceutical drugs, numerous dangers exits in taking a counterfeit pill:

Some of the drugs originating in the Far East have been found to contain cement and brick dust, and be coloured with ink from computer printer cartons.

It is not known whether anyone has suffered side effects, but Dr Jonathan Harper, who was hired by the Council of Europe to write a report on the counterfeit trade, believes it is probable that there have already been deaths in the UK caused by fake medicines.

The seizures of counterfeit drugs by Custom officials have been increasing in the UK over the past several years, with some pills reaching consumers.

In the past three years there have been nine cases of fake drugs reaching patients. Seizures of these drugs across Europe rose from 500,000 fake tablets in 2005 to 2.7m in 2006.

Two years ago 2,523 packs of fake Lipitor, an anticholesterol drug, were sold in Britain. Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show that only 359 of those packs were recovered. A similar case last year with the same drug resulted in only seven packs being recovered out of 1,867 that reached the supply chain.  

Havocscope is currently listing the value of the Counterfiet Drugs Market to be $40 billion.