The importation of fake and fraudulent medical supplies must be stopped.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a perfect time for fraudsters to flood the American market with counterfeit personal protection equipment, such as gloves, masks and robes, to make up for the temporary shortage of legitimate medical supplies. Such items, made on the cheap and without concern for quality, can lead to serious consequences, especially during a crisis like the most recent pandemic. On this episode, we learn about how fraudulent medical supplies get into the country — only about 1% of all imports are physically inspected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection — and how they can be stopped. Our guest is Ram Ben Tzion, co-founder and CEO of Publican, a digital platform for freight vetting. We’ll discuss the feasibility of inspecting 100% of incoming cargo, and using artificial intelligence to flag fraud patterns. Hosted by Bob Bowman, Editor-in-Chief of SupplyChainBrain.

Show notes:

An e-book from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime: “Combating Falsified Medical Product-Related Crime.”