Re: Criminal Indian Mind Make Fake medicines putting life of millions at risk
Satish Kumar
wrote:
>
The more praying you do in Pakistan, more likely is it that you are a
dealer in fake medicine.
REUTERS
Pakistan Medicine Plagued by Deadly Fake Drugs
Asia: Two-thirds of medicines dispensed in government hospitals, up to
half of medications sold in rural areas are counterfeit.
By COLIN BARRACLOUGH
KARACHI, Pakistan — Potentially deadly counterfeit drugs produced in
Karachi's teeming back streets are threatening Pakistan's health care
system, already beset by poor conditions and a lack of money.
Capsules of "penicillin" made from chalk, metal "pills," contaminated
injections and bottles of vitamin solution containing fungus are
prevalent, but they find their way into public health programs.
"The problem is huge," said Farooq Hadi, director of the
pharmaceutical industry's trade association, the Pharma Bureau of
Overseas Investors General. "There are probably more people involved
in the production of illegal drugs than legal ones."
In rural areas, where most people are illiterate, pharmaceutical
officials estimate that some 50% of all drugs are counterfeit. Many
people recognize a drug by its packaging and are easily deceived into
buying fakes.
U.S.-based Wyeth Laboratories' "Entox P," for example, is copied as
"Wantox B" by a company called Wahid, a name very similar to Wyeth,
when spoken in Pakistani. Most pharmacists are either too unskilled to
know the difference or are profiting too easily to care.
Victims hampered by poverty and illiteracy often are too ignorant to
seek legal redress. Even with a lawyer, they find it difficult to
track down the counterfeiter.
"You have to bribe a policeman in order to report a case here," said
Sultan Anwar, manager at Wyeth Laboratories in Karachi. "How should
ordinary people complain?"
In urban government hospitals, the paramedics who assist doctors in
dispensing drugs produced in back-room operations see the scale of the
problem.
"Two-thirds of government hospital drugs are spurious," said Zakir
Hussein, a paramedic in one of Karachi's provincial government
hospitals.
Drugs often are used by public hospitals after their expiration date.
Disposable syringes are used up to 20 times, health workers say. In
1989, six people died in Karachi when an entire stock of locally
produced plasma drips were found to contain fungus.
Responsibility for the flourishing counterfeiting business is
repudiated by government officials, doctors and pharmaceutical
producers alike.
The multinational drug companies have taken the brunt of criticism for
putting profit before people. Many now believe they should clean up
the industry by pursuing the manufacturers of bogus drugs.
Farooq Hadi of the pharmaceutical trade association disagrees.
> India's market in generic drugs also leads to counterfeiting
>
> Suresh Sati is an anti-counterfeit drug detective who works for
> several global pharamaceutical companies and helps busts clandestine
> fake drug operations in India. Sati says that 25 percent of India's
> drugs are fake, counterfeit or substandard. (Rama Lakshmi - Washington
> Post)
> Network NewsXPROFILE
>
> By Rama Lakshmi
> Washington Post Foreign Service
> Saturday, September 11, 2010; 12:25 AM
>
> IN NEW DELHI Private investigator Suresh Sati rattled off the popular
> brand names listed on the boxes of cough syrup, supplements, vitamins
> and painkillers sprawled across the desk and shelves in his basement
> office.
>
> THIS STORY
> India's market in generic drugs also leads to counterfeiting
> Japan, India to sign free trade agreement
> Sanofi-Aventis offers $18.5 billion for Genzyme
> "They look real, but all these are fakes," said Sati, head of a New
> Delhi-based agency that helps police conduct raids against counterfeit-
> drug syndicates across the country. "A regular customer cannot make
> out if a drug is fake. . . . The biggest giveaway is when someone is
> selling medicines very cheap. It is almost always fake."
>
> India, the world's largest manufacturer of generic drugs, has become a
> busy center for counterfeit and substandard medicines. Stuffed in
> slick packaging and often labeled with the names of such legitimate
> companies as GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Novartis, the fake drugs are
> passed off to Indian consumers and sold in developing nations around
> the world.
>
> Experts say the global fake-drug industry, worth about $90 billion,
> causes the deaths of almost 1 million people a year and is
> contributing to a rise in drug resistance.
>
> Estimates vary on the number of these drugs made in India. The Indian
> government says that 0.4 percent of the country's drugs are
> counterfeit and that substandard drugs account for about 8 percent.
> But independent estimates range from 12 to 25 percent.
>
> Indian officials say the clandestine industry has hurt the image of
> India's booming pharmaceutical industry and its exports, worth $8.5
> billion a year, mostly to African and Latin American countries.
>
> To clamp down on the illegal trade, the health ministry launched a
> reward program this year offering $55,000 to those who provide
> information about fake-drug syndicates.
>
> Last year, the ministry also strengthened its drug law to speed up
> court trials. Suspects found guilty of manufacturing and selling fake
> drugs can be sentenced to life in prison.
>
> The number of people arrested for manufacturing and selling fake drugs
> rose from 12 in 2006 to 147 last year, and drugs worth about $6.5
> million were seized over this period.
>
> "It is very difficult to dismantle the entire operation," Sati said.
> "When we bust one operation, two more spring up elsewhere. Convictions
> are rare."
>
> The tricks of the trade include sticking fraudulent labels on expired
> products, filling vials with water, stuffing small amounts of real
> ingredients in packages of popular licensed brands and putting chalk
> power in medicine packets.
>
> But more than the concern for public safety, officials here have been
> particularly alarmed about recent incidents that discredit India's
> image abroad.