AEGiS-Bangkok Post: Editorial: Your medication: Is it genuine?

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Editorial: Your medication: Is it genuine?

Bangkok Post - February 3, 2007

Any mention of copyright violations usually brings to mind pirated DVDs, software, music and the challenges posed to legitimate, paying users by error-prone and frustrating digital rights management programs designed to combat such infringements. It can all sound relatively harmless and create the misconception among some people that piracy is essentially a victimless crime. This is definitely not the case. The singer or musician whose work is stolen is a victim, and the Thai software engineer whose work is copied without recompense loses his livelihood. What is rightfully theirs goes into the pockets of criminal gangs.

But the most sinister aspect of this trade in fake goods, and one those people who try to rationalise taking advantage of and making such purchases usually overlook, is that counterfeiting is all-pervasive, with few areas left untouched. Consumers are in danger of discovering just how widespread and hazardous it can be when the medicine they buy from the pharmacy or clinic, or the new brake linings they purchase for their car, also turn out to be masquerading under a fake brand name. The likelihood is that these counterfeits will be substandard and possess the potential to seriously harm or kill them. A frighteningly true example of caveat emptor or let the buyer beware.

The counterfeiting of ordinary medicines has become big business for unscrupulous criminal gangs and, tragically, it continues to be a growth industry with truly horrific results. One pharmacist in the United States was even convicted of adulterating and counterfeiting cancer treatment drugs so he could enrich himself by increasing the suffering of cancer victims. He was caught, but arrest rates in our part of the world are ominously low.

There is no shortage of international concern. The World Health Organisation (WHO), World Bank and Interpol have long expressed concern at the proliferation of counterfeit medicines and they were joined this week by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, which took up the matter at its annual meeting in Geneva. Industry specialists put the cost of such counterfeiting at more than $100 billion a year and warned just how much it was putting human health and safety at risk while, at the same time, undermining economic development through lost earnings, lost jobs and lost tax revenues.

Delegates did not raise any eyebrows when members of the organisation declared China to be the worst offender in the trade of fake goods, with every product on the market being a target for counterfeiters. They already knew that two-thirds of all bogus goods seized by European Union customs officials came from China. But they could not fail to be shocked at hearing that 10% of the world's medicines are fakes. And this was a conservative estimate. The WHO believes that up to 25% of prescription drugs sold in developing countries are pirated and consequently a menace to public health.

The most commonly counterfeited medicines are treatments for life-threatening conditions such as HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and, especially, drug-resistant malaria. The malaria problem, endemic in border areas, is worsened by the roaring trade in fakes, including the new and effective Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT) drugs. The counterfeiters follow where people are buying these drugs, counterfeit them and put them on the market and all of a sudden, the medicine stops working. For the drugs to be safe and effective, they have to be what they say they are. Patients die when they are not.

The Public Health Ministry publishes photos of seized counterfeits on its website. Its researchers say they regard China as the main instigator because only 5% of the contents of some of its drugs are medical substances while over 90% can be just glucose.

Concerted efforts are being made to stem the flow, but this problem needs to be tackled at the source, which puts the onus on Beijing - a regime which has shown just how tough it can get when it really wants to. Ending this despicable trade in human suffering and greed should provide sufficient impetus to act.

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