Opinion | Editorials
Stop the flow of counterfeit medicines
US has failed to ensure that fake drugs don't get into the Iraqi market.
- Gulf News
- Published: 23:28 September 6, 2008
The problem of counterfeit drugs being sold or distributed in developing countries has been around for some time. Some disreputable manufacturers specialise in the dangerous practice of producing spurious drugs which more often than not cause serious harm to those patients who take them. Some of the counterfeit drugs contain a small amount, but not enough, of the required medication, thereby building up a resistance to the genuine drug and its efficacy. It then becomes very difficult for doctors to treat such patients, especially if the drug is of specialist nature and no similar type is made.
Other types of counterfeit drugs contain no medicines at all and may contain any substance that gives the appearance of the correct medicine, but will not perform any function towards benefiting the patient. Although Asian countries are often accused of these malpractices, it is not confined to the East, as there are drug manufacturers in the West that also produce counterfeit drugs, or have been known to ship expired drugs, once re-dated, or drugs that are banned in their own countries. Just because a drug is produced in "the West" not does give it an automatic seal of quality and approval.
Most commonly, it is African countries that suffer from the sale and distribution of counterfeit drugs, followed swiftly by other developing nations often further east. So it is alarming to discover that due to inadequate border controls and government checks, Iraqi pharmacists are selling counterfeit drugs of all types. It is alarming because the US, which closely monitors the manufacture and distribution of drugs in its own country, has failed to ensure Iraq, which has been under its occupation for five years now, has not merited the same standards it applies for Americans.
Now that the Iraqi government gathers strength, it is to be hoped that such anomalies will be rectified.
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