The PBN Company
Unofficial Translation

Vremya MN
October 11, 2001
Page 6

Medicine May Cost Your Life

By Elena Subbotina

Counterfeit medicines pose a growing threat to the health of Russia's population. Exactly how to fight this evil trend was the theme of discussion for two hundred delegates attending a recent International Conference held by AIPM.

The RF Ministry of Health has compiled a black list of counterfeit medicines including fifty-six foreign and domestic drugs. Antibiotics, insulin and cardiovascular preparations are the most frequently counterfeited medicines. In 1999-2000 Russian authorities registered several cases of wide-scale production and circulation of counterfeits. It is estimated that at least 1 million people fell victim to fake medicines.

I well know the horrors associated with fake medicines. Having come down with pneumonia, I treated my condition by taking Sumamed antibiotic pills. However, instead of getting better my pneumonia started choking me even harder. The situation was cleared up at a hospital - I risked my life and wasted time taking useless pills from those 7% of counterfeit medicines that circulated throughout Russia after the default.

Up until the end of the 1990s, Russia's pharmaceutical market did not have troubles of this kind. Unfortunately, however, our businessmen found a way to quickly close the gap between the world market's counterfeit medicine percentage and Russia's.
And now we are making tremendous progress - the number of disclosed cases of counterfeit medicines in Russia increased several times over last year's figure.

The conference delegates from the U.S. and Europe believe that it is absolutely wrong to focus on the percentage of counterfeits as even a single fake pill can kill. Our foreign guests assert that counterfeit medicines should not be allowed to exist period.
How naive they are! Of course, it's easy for them to say that considering that their governments have already taken steps to implement relevant legislation and other control measures designed to put a halt to drug counterfeiting. For instance, France established the pharmacological police and empowered them with wide-ranging authority.

The situation is different in Russia. The Federal Law "On Medicines" of 1998 does not even address this vital issue. Russian criminal law does not provide clear definitions of what constitute the production, distribution and sale of counterfeit pharmaceuticals.

The majority of fake medicines are imported from China, India and republics of the former USSR. However, customs officials do not have the resources to check the quality of imported medicines to determine if they meet government standards. In addition, it is not immutable to observe rules and recommendations by the Ministry of Health and the State Committee for Standardization.

Domestic business operators are inferior to foreign counterfeiters. For instance, an underground shop producing 'antibiotics' was discovered in Saransk, the capital of Mordovia. Their technology for counterfeiting certainly didn't deserve the Nobel Prize. They simply stole substances from pharmaceutical factories, poured them into vials, stuck labels on them and then sold them.
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Unfortunately, Russian citizens are basically left on their own to deal with this plague. The most terrible thing is that those caught selling counterfeits incur almost no risk whatsoever. In any event, the Russian general public has no knowledge of any case where those responsible for poisoning them have received any significant punishment for their crime.

The delegates of the conference agreed that it is necessary to adopt amendments (which have already been worked out) to pertinent federal laws and establish the pharmaceutical inspectorate.

However, the Russian pharmaceutical market has its own peculiarities. It is by no mere chance that the development of the 'shadow' sector was launched after the default. Obviously, as the income of the population decreases the opportunities for counterfeiters increase. Quality medicines produced by well-known companies are so expensive that people are desperate for a chance to save if only ten or more rubles. This situation offers shady businessman a golden opportunity - starting next year prices for medicines will increase by 40% due to the VAT introduction. This means that the demand for less expensive counterfeit products will be steady.

It is well known that medicine prices in poverty-ridden Russia are higher than in well-to-do western countries. Our own native state is creating hothouse conditions for pharmaceutical rogues by implementing measures which will drive medicine prices up even higher.

Background Information

According to the World Health Organization, from 1982 to 1997, 25% of 750 registered cases of counterfeit pharmaceuticals occurred in developed countries. Medicines not containing active ingredients made up 59% of disclosed cases, medicines with departure from the norm of active ingredients constituted 17% and medicines containing active ingredients accounted for 16%. Here are the most scandalous incidents. In 1996, over 80 children in Haiti died after they ingested contaminated syrup from cough medicine. Last year the counterfeit poliomyelitis vaccine killed 2,500 people in Nigeria. Two thousand Chinese died from counterfeit medicines in 2000. Antibiotics compose approximately 50% of all cases of counterfeit medicines.