Iraq moves to curb sales of fake drugs
Officials have begun stepping up inspections and license requirements before a deadline to enforce pharmaceutical laws. But many fear shortage of medications.
BAGHDAD — Amid the cacophony of Baghdad's Bab Sharaji market, Yasir Mazen peddles counterfeit Viagra and other pills, gels and creams promising cures for everything from sexual dysfunction to bad skin.
It's a thriving business. "They always come back to buy more," the 20-year-old said of his customers.
But Mazen, as well as sellers of legitimate medications, may find it harder to get hold of goods to hawk come Monday. That's the deadline the Ministry of Health has set for enforcing drug laws that have been largely ignored since the ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Though the laws remained in effect, the invasion and its aftermath led to a vacuum in enforcement while the newly opened borders sent counterfeit goods flooding into the country.
The government says the deadline is part of a sweeping effort to bring Iraq in line with international norms and clean up the burgeoning trade in fake drugs. There are only two state-run pharmaceutical factories in Iraq, so 90% of the medications used here are imported. Nearly all are made by companies not registered in Iraq and sold without being tested for efficacy.
"It's not medicine. It's just boxes, and God knows what's in them," said Adel Muhsin, the Health Ministry's inspector general.
Tests and spot checks
The law requires each drug manufacturer sending products to Iraq to get a stamp of approval from the Health Ministry. Under the stepped-up enforcement, a sample of each imported drug is supposed to be tested for efficacy and approved before going on the market. Teams of inspectors will do spot checks of pharmacies and drug warehouses and step up raids on markets where counterfeit dealers operate.
Muhsin said the need for drug regulation was underscored by a test his ministry did recently: It collected 100 samples of medications from various pharmacies and tested them to see whether they contained the ingredients needed to be 100% effective.
"All the samples failed," said Muhsin, adding that people would be better going without than relying on supplies that are not proved to be safe or that might have expired months or years earlier.
He said drugs with FDA approval or those OKd for sale in Europe and the United Arab Emirates will sail through the testing process without problems. It's the knockoffs and the "phantom" or illegal pharmacies selling them that will have problems, he said.
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- Counterfeit Drug Strategy Proposed Feb 19, 2004
- Sale, Misuse of Smuggled Drugs Spread Feb 27, 1999
