(25-12-2008)- Fake drugs on sale at markets across the nation are posing a serious threat to public health, according to the Viet Nam Drugs Administration.

More and more fake drugs are being discovered by drug inspectors each year, with the problem now escalating to an urgent threat. Fake drugs can lengthen the time it takes to treat medical conditions, complicate diseases and even result in death.

According to the drug administration, the rate of fake medicines in Viet Nam was 0.03 per cent in 2001, while last year fake drugs accounted for 1.13 per cent of medicine on the market.

Chief inspector of the Ministry of Health Tran Quang Trung yesterday confirmed that the amount of fake drugs has increased, however, he refused to reveal details on the most current figures.

Trung said the most common fake drugs are imitations of Viagra, Neo Codion, Becozym, Ampicilline, Augmentin and Biolactyl.

At present, many kinds of drugs, including domestically and foreign-manufactured medicines, are faked and sold with counterfeit trademarks.

These kinds of imitation drugs are usually uncovered by pharmacists and health experts, as customers don’t have the resources to detect fake drugs.

The Ministry of Health has announced a ban on manufacturing imitation drugs several times, and the National Office of Industrial Property developed measures to protect industrial products, but these moves were ineffective and too slow. As a result, authorities cannot adequately manage the production and distribution of fake drugs across the country.

Counterfeit drugs

However, authorities have recently had success in uncovering cases of manufacture and distribution of fake drugs.

Late October, Ha Noi police detained four people involved in a counterfeit drug ring, whose members later claimed that they had sold 3,900 boxes of fake drugs.

In August, HCM City’s Tan Phu District authorities caught three workers from a local workshop, as they were pasting counterfeit labels of a French-made drug on domestically-manufactured medicine. Authorities also uncovered drugs without clear origins, including Cezil, Votarel, Viagra and Diclofenac, at the workshop.

In March, Ha Noi police made many seizures of fake drugs without clear certificates of origin.

HCM City police and health inspectors uncovered 19 kinds of imitation drugs including traditional Asian medicines that were in circulation in the city during the first six months of 2008.

Sanofi pharmaceutical company announced two kinds of counterfeit traditional Asian medicine were in circulation at local markets.

The Viet Nam Drugs Administration reported that several types of fake medicine, including Ampicilline, Erythromicine and Cotrimfort, were uncovered this year.

According to statistics from the health ministry’s testing institute, 1,054 of 43,237 examined drug samples didn’t meet quality requirements. The rate of domestically-manufactured drugs that didn’t meet requirements was 3 per cent, and 4.9 per cent of imported medicines also failed to reach the standards.

The rate of fake traditional Asian medicine was the highest at 9.6 per cent, followed by antibiotics, 6.1 per cent.

Fake drugs have threatened public health more than HIV/AIDS and malaria, according to Harvey Bale, former chairman of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers.

Bale forecast that fake drugs would become the most serious problem threatening the community’s health during the next 10 years.

Doctor Pham Due, deputy director of the Anti-poison Centre at Bach Mai Hospital in Ha Noi, said it is difficult to discover fake drugs. Only management agencies are allowed to check and test batches of imported drugs.

Doctor Hoang Thi Kim Huyen from the Ha Noi Pharmaceutical University said she could not distinguish the difference between fake and real drugs without carrying out tests. Unlike other types of counterfeit goods, fake drugs can only be discovered by careful scientific tests.

"This means that once fake drugs are circulated in the market, consumers as well as pharmacists have little hope of recognising the fakes until its too late," she said.

Viet Nam now has 54 pharmaceutical and cosmetic testing centres but a lack of strict management over drugs circulated in the market has made it difficult to discover fake drugs.

In order to deal with the problem, it is essential to establish stricter punishment, increase standards for drugstores, as well as set up close co-operation between relevant ministries, agencies and pharmaceutical producers.—VNS