EDITORIAL - Fake meds, illegal stores

Two Chinese nationals were recently charged with selling fake medicines after the National Bureau of Investigation raided their respective convenience stores in Barangay Bakilid, Mandaue City, last Friday.

The NBI said Shi Wenpai who owned Hua Long Market and Wu Xiao who was the store manager of Liaoxing Supermarket were arrested following reports that they were selling medicines without a permit.

The bureau seized Amoxicillin capsules, rapid test kits, and prescription medicines, most of which were in boxes with Chinese characters on them. According to NBI-7 director Rennan Oliva, the entire haul was estimated at half a million pesos worth.

We have written about the dangers of fake medicines before; how they don’t just offer a false sense of security to people but how they may also potentially harm those who take them because of the questionable ingredients they have or the dubious processes used to manufacture them.

The fact that many of the medicines were in boxes with only Chinese characters on them breeds even more suspicion. Not because they are China-made, mind you, but because we can’t read the labels and don’t know what some of the items actually are. For all we know they could be expired drugs, veterinary medicines, candies, or even cleaning products.

But there is another issue here; the two suspects were able to set up and operate a convenience store without getting the necessary requirements and permits from the barangay and the city. How were they able to pull that off?

And are there any more of these stores without the necessary permits also selling drugs without the permission of the Food and Drug Administration, or worse, selling fake medicines?

It’s good that the bureau was tipped off about these two convenience stores. But now we have to ask our fellow citizens to be more vigilant against such establishments and tell our law enforcers when they see them.