Speaking at a seminar organized by MARQUES in Hong Kong on Monday, Steve Hawgood, the corporate asset protection and compliance officer for north Asia for Eli Lilly and a vice-chairman of the Quality Brands Protection Committee, discussed the twin problems of counterfeiting in Asia and on the internet.

Hawgood, a former policeman in Hong Kong, compared the problem of counterfeiting to the global trade in drugs and child pornography, but pointed out that counterfeits often have far higher profit margins than heroin.

“We’ve got a problem that has only just started and, in my view, is about to boom,” he said.

He pointed out that middlemen outside China – often highly organized criminal syndicates – are the ones who buy and distribute fakes, and who make the biggest profit out of the business.

Hawgood said that the global trade in counterfeits was facilitated by business-to-business websites, message boards and chat rooms.

Other speakers at the seminar had earlier criticized internet auction house eBay for not doing enough to tackle the trade. But Hawgood said that Eli Lilly and other pharmaceutical manufacturers had succeeded in preventing the sale of counterfeit prescription medicines on eBay – although he conceded that it had not had any influence on the total number of counterfeits sold.

“International legislative changes will do little to curb internet-related counterfeiting,” he said.