Pharmaceutical Abuse Investigator Charlie Cichon To Speak at 2010 Partnership for Safe Medicines Interchange on October 8th in Washington DC
National expert on prescription drug problems in the United States
Charles (Charlie) Cichon is the executive director of the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators (NADDI, www.naddi.org), a non-profit organization that facilitates cooperation among law enforcement, health care professionals, state regulatory agencies and pharmaceutical manufacturers in the investigation and prevention of prescription drug abuse and diversion. Cichon brings a diverse background to this role, including his work in law enforcement, health regulatory agencies and the pharmaceutical industry.
“The threat posed by counterfeit drugs and other medical products is major problem in the developing world and is causing increasing concern in North America.”
Cichon references the death of a woman in Victoria, BC in 2007, due to metal poisoning from counterfeit drugs purchased from unregistered online pharmacies. The coroner’s tests identified significantly high levels of metals in the woman’s liver, and identified these same metals in pills that she had purchased online.
“Similar cases are indicative of a problem that is far more prevalent than anyone can imagine. When you have someone representing a pharmaceutical product to be genuine and it's not, you can imagine the consequences."
In addition to his role as executive director of NADDI, Cichon is also the program director for the National Precursor Log Exchange (NPLEx). NPLEx is a real-time electronic tracking program for pseudoephedrine, offered free to states as an effective alternative to legislation that eliminates over-the-counter pseudoephedrine products.
Prior to joining NADDI as the executive director in 1998, Cichon worked for Eli Lilly and Company in the role of brand protection representative for the Americas. Cichon’s responsibilities included managing diversion and counterfeit investigations involving Eli Lilly products throughout the Americas; serving as liaison with law enforcement and government agencies; as well as training local, state and federal law enforcement in the identification of counterfeit Eli Lilly products.
Cichon also served as the chief compliance investigator for the Maryland Medical Board (part of the Maryland Department of Health & Mental Hygiene), where he supervised investigations of physicians and other allied health care professionals to ensure they were complying with state regulations.
Recognized as an international expert on pharmaceutical abuse and diversion, Cichon has lectured extensively on the topics of pharmaceutical abuse and diversion, identifying and targeting the illegal prescriber, Internet prescribing, office-based opioid treatment programs, Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA) and law enforcement, illegal importation of pharmaceuticals and the global threat of pharmaceutical counterfeiting.
Cichon started his career as a police officer with the Baltimore City Police in the Criminal Investigation Division. He earned his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Baltimore, and he is a member of the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS) Pharma Security Council and the National Biopharmaceutical Security Council (NBSC).
