Walk raises advocacy vs. counterfeit drugs

CEBU - To raise public awareness on the effects of proliferating fake medicine in the market, the Samahan Laban sa Pekeng Gamot organized a cause-oriented walk and run activity yesterday at the Mall of Asia grounds in Manila.

The activity dubbed “Lakad Laban sa Pekeng Gamot: A walk and run activity against counterfeit medicine” seeks to express appeal to concerned stakeholders and bodies for actions that shall protect the welfare of Filipino patients from the harmful effects of fake drugs.

“The walk and run event was opened to all advocates of safe and quality drugs,” said Dr. Minerva Calimag, chairman of the Philippine Medical Association Committee on Food, Drugs and Cosmetics.

Calimag said the launching of the activity was intended to raise everyone’s consciousness on the importance of being vigilant and wary to protect Filipinos from the dangers of counterfeit medicines.

Counterfeit medicines are medicinal products that could have the correct ingredients but not in the amount as provided. It may also have wrong ingredients, without active ingredients or may be adulterated and may contain contaminants. These reduce the drug’s safety, efficacy, quality, strength, and purity.

Regular use of counterfeit medicine may lead to therapeutic failure, drug resistance or death.

Counterfeit drugs mimic the real thing, Calimag said.

That is why the public must be educated of the warning signs.

According to the SLPG, a multi-sectoral group composed of people from public and private sectors all over the country, fake drugs are deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled in identity and source or with fake packaging.

These can be true both in generic and branded products.

The Department of Health has estimated that about 10 percent of the medicines sold in the market today are counterfeit, according to the SLPG website.

A survey done by the World Health Organization, on the other hand, said that about eight percent of these fake medicines in the market are hazardous to one’s health because these may contain toxic and unlisted ingredients not tested or approved by the Bureau of Food and Drugs.

SLPG pointed out that fake drugs proliferate because distribution can be a good business, these can be easily accessed, are poorly recognized as fake; and that there are little or no citable statistics yet, just case reports.

SLPG said that since the country has poor regulation of these dangerous drugs, manufacturers and distributors who want to avoid accountability and compliance with regulations take advantage of the situation as it is easy to manufacture without considering good manufacturing practice. — Jessica Ann Pareja/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)