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."