'30% of drugs in market fake'

About 30 percent of drugs sold in the market today are fake, and a group of health care experts warned yesterday that the figure might rise when the government allows the importation of unregistered medicines.

The Pharmaceutical Health Care Association of the Philippines (PHAP) said the selling of fake drugs is a multimillion-peso industry and this is expected to boom as soon as the Department of Health approves its so-called parallel importation of drugs.

The government actually allows the importation of drugs as long as these are registered with the Bureau of Food and Drugs.

However, most, if not all, of these medicines are expensive, prompting the health department to let unregistered foreign-made drugs to enter the country soon.

The PHAP expressed fears that some of these drugs may be fake.

"There is now a proliferation of adulterated drugs or medicines that are merely made of sugar and starch," said PHAP president Edwin Feist, adding that extensive use of such drugs can be fatal.

He cited the cases of a retired general, whose feet were amputated after being treated with adulterated antibiotic, and an infant, who died after being injected with a fake medicine.

He said all types of drugs, whether they are in the form of capsules, injectables or syrups, can be adulterated without the consumers knowing it.

"Even an expert cannot know the difference between an original or an adulterated medicine unless the drug is subjected to laboratory test," Feist said.

Though there is no assurance that one is using an original medicine, Feist advised the public to refrain from buying drugs that are not contained in tin foils.

He said multinational drug firms put their products in such foils to guard it from being imitated.

"Most producers of fake drugs are hesitant to use foil ... because they are very expensive," he said.

But since the marketing of fake drugs is a lucrative business, some drugstores sell the counterfeit product.

Feist said around 32 drugstores have been padlocked by the Bureau of Food and Drugs for selling adulterated medicine.

The PHAP then urged the health department to put in remedies against the importation and proliferation of fake medicine.