In his new book, “Phake: The Deadly World of Falsified and Substandard Medicines,” Roger Bate explores the underground trade in illegal medicines that kills over 100,000 people per year and supplants billions of dollars of real products.

With fakes of the cancer drug Avastin popping up in U.S. clinics in the past few months, patients are naturally worried about whether their medicines are safe.  Considering eighty percent of the ingredients in U.S. medicines come from overseas – mostly from China and India because their products are generally...

In an attempt to protect poor, uninsured and underinsured Americans from unsafe drugs, we are making sure that some go without drugs completely. It is time the law was changed.

With 100,000 patients dying every year from dangerous medicines, it is time to take concrete actions. Establishing a treaty against fake medicines should be the first step.

Knowing where all our ingredients come from is the first step toward improving drug quality.

The FDA must continue to pressure Chinese authorities to test what is on the market and remove any substandard products found.

Why doesBeijing have so much troublestopping the exportation of dangerous drugs?

The U.S. is not immune to lethal failings in the quality of pharmaceutical drugs. With little realistic oversight, and more importantly, little ethos of business integrity in China, a major tragedy in the U.S. from a Chinese export is likely in the near future.