Bogus medicines targeted at low-income consumers<\/p>\n
By Arif Suryobuwono<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Bogus pharmaceuticals are there for those who
\ncannot afford to buy the expensive real ones. The stuff is also
\nthere because there the low-budget consumer's problem is an
\nopportunity to make money.<\/p>\n
\"What I mean with 'bogus' stuff is medicine which is illegally
\nimported, produced, are substandard or mere placebos,\" said Aman
\n(not his real name), a former medical representative who helped
\nhis company trace drugs pirates many years ago. \"Hence they are
\ncheaper,\" he added.<\/p>\n
Aman said it is usually quite easy to distinguish them from
\nthe real ones. \"First, they are cheap. Second, they are not
\nprofessionally packaged. Third, they look different.\" Aman did
\nnot describe these differences in any detail.<\/p>\n
Another medical representative, Amir (not his real name), said
\nthat illegally-imported drugs are easily detectable because they
\nare not registered with the Directorate General of Food and Drugs
\nSupervision (Ditjen POM). They also lack the code and lot number
\nof the distributor officially appointed to sell them.<\/p>\n
Spotting substandard drugs can be as tricky as spotting the
\ndifferences between two identical pictures, especially if their
\nprices do not differ much.<\/p>\n
But there are uglier tricks. A man who once witnessed how
\nbogus medicine was made said that scrapped medicines -- discarded
\nor expired ones which have been thrown away in garbage dumps --
\nwere \"reconstituted in such a way that they look as if they were
\nfresh from the factory, and then resold.\"<\/p>\n
Scavengers and hospitals' cleaners supply dumped drugs to junk
\nmen and traders who sell them to drugstores after \"revamping\"
\nthem, the man, who requested anonymity, said. A relative of his
\ndid this dirty job.<\/p>\n
Placebos<\/p>\n
There are also placebos sold as antibiotics, he said. \"The
\nvendor, of course, has to employ a hit and run strategy,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Another relative of his who managed to steal hundreds of empty
\ncapsules before losing his job in a pharmaceutical company used
\nto sell \"antibiotics\" which were actually encapsulated wheat
\nflour.<\/p>\n
Amir said that a subtler way of playing trick is using near-
\nquality materials. For instance, using cultivated medicinal herbs
\ninstead of those which grow wild as required.<\/p>\n
Another, still subtler way is illegally procuring special low-
\npriced drugs designated for hospitals, relief or charity
\norganizations or government agencies instead of legally
\npurchasing drugs designated for the common market. That way it is
\npossible to offer them at a much reduced price. Those special
\nlow-priced drugs differ from normal ones in that they are loose
\nin a can instead of being packed in air-tight foil strips.<\/p>\n
Thus not all bogus drugs are really bogus and not all cheap
\ndrugs are fake.<\/p>\n
The surest way of determining whether they are fake or not is
\nto have them tested in a laboratory. But this is rare.<\/p>\n
Aman said that when he gets reports of his company's products
\nbeing sold below the market price in a given marketing area, the
\nfirst thing he does is investigate the distributor responsible
\nfor the area. He recounted a specific case.<\/p>\n
\"Once I found a slightly different version of the drugs. But
\nmy manager said that our company used to produce that version
\nsome time ago. So there was no need to have them tested in the
\nlab,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"We changed our mind, however, when we found that the cover of
\nthe can containing the drugs was a bit too loose. The can was
\nours but the cover was not. Laboratory tests showed that the
\ndrugs were substandard.\"<\/p>\n
A stock-take was then performed on drugstores in the area to
\ninvestigate, and an insider was eventually found guilty of
\nillegally producing the drugs.<\/p>\n
This happened more than 10 years ago, but such things are
\nstill happening. Amir, whose company imports liquid drugs,
\nconfirmed this.<\/p>\n
\"Oh, yes, I know very well that our products also enter
\nIndonesia in a rather informal way. But our company has decided
\nnot to take legal action because we know it would be useless\".<\/p>\n
\"We deal with this problem by explaining to pharmacists and
\nphysicians the differences between legal and illegal products and
\nasking them not to accept the illegal ones. That's all we can
\ndo,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"I always wonder how these products can get into this country
\nillegally,\" he added, \"Is there nobody at the door?\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/bogus-medicines-targeted-at-low-income-consumers-1447893297",
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