Counterfeit anxiety pills seized in Switzerland

Swiss authorities have intercepted a large shipment of counterfeit tablets in transit between China and Egypt. The four crates contained over a million fake versions of Pfizer’s Xanax (alprazolam) pills, which have now been destroyed.

Analysis by the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products showed that the tablets ‘contained no active ingredients whatsoever’, and would be ‘unrecognisable as counterfeits at a first glance’. Counterfeits are an ongoing problem for the pharmaceutical industry with companies looking for new technology to make drugs harder to fake, and replicas easier to spot.