Fake drugs threaten both consumers and pharmaceutical sector
Fake drugs threaten both consumers and pharmaceutical sector
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The sale of counterfeit medicines not only threatens consumers
but also the pharmaceutical industry as the distribution of such
drugs is now out of control. Moreover, the country's inadequate
legal infrastructure and weak law enforcement have allowed such
counterfeit drugs to flood the market.
Reports say that the consumption of such drugs can sometimes
be fatal.
These products also hurt both the health of consumers and
their pockets as such drugs do not have the desired effect so
consumers have to shell out even more money before getting
better.
Recently, the head of the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency
(BPOM), Sampurno, announced that 55 fake medicines had been
detected circulating on the Indonesian market since 1999.
Counterfeit medicines often look just like the real thing in
terms of packaging. But they usually have a lower dosage, or even
none of the active ingredients at all.
Sampurno said that most of the fake medicines were sold in
unregistered stores.
Such medicines have persistently hurt the pharmaceutical
industry in Indonesia, says the chairman of the Indonesian
Pharmaceutical Association (GPF), Anthony Ch. Sunarjo.
"The problem has hurt the industry, of course. Some GPF
members have submitted reports to us (GPF officials) about the
circulation of the fake drugs and the damage they were doing to
their sales," he said.
He could not give any details about the exact extent of the
problem, or how much the counterfeit drugs had affected overall
drug sales.
PT Pfizer Indonesia also voiced concern, saying that over the
last two years the sales of some of the company products had
declined.
"According to our research, over the last two years fake
medicines have been severely hurting our sales, especially those
of our fastest moving drugs, like Viagra and Ponstan. Their sales
declined by an average of 40 percent in 2002," Pfizer's director
of public affairs Daisy K. Primayanti told The Jakarta Post.
She confirmed that the main cause of the decline was the
counterfeit medicines circulating on the market.
To eliminate the problem, the pharmaceutical industry has
taken some steps, like developing difficult-to-imitate packaging,
including the use of hologram stickers and special inks.
"However, such measures are not very effective as the
impostors can immediately imitate them," said Sunarjo.
He said that some pharmaceutical companies had filed lawsuits
against the producers of fake drugs, but the results they had
obtained were not enough to offset the legal costs they had to
pay.
"Once, the court sentenced a defendant to only two months in
jail," he said. "This was not enough to teach him a lesson."
Pfizer, Daisy said, preferred to hold awareness-raising
seminars on fake drugs rather than resorting to legal action.
Separately, Sampurno also conceded that the punishments
imposed on drug counterfeiters were not sufficient.
"Last year, the BPOM and police raided illegal drug stores
across Indonesia, nabbing some counterfeiters in the process. In
Central Java, 30 of those arrested have already being tried with
only minor punishments being imposed," he said. "Such punishments
are not enough to deter the criminals from resorting to their
felonious ways again."