Concerns about fake goods in the medical field

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Fake goods in the medical field are very dangerous because it directly relates to the health and life of people. In the photo: Operational activities at Mong Cai Customs Branch – Quang Ninh. Photo: Quang Hung.

In early February, 2017, the Drug Administration underthe Ministry of Health had 4 consecutive urgent official dispatches on stopping the circulation and collecting nationwide nearly 30 kinds of problematic cosmetics. However, when this banmeets companies, facilities and distribution stores, many people have used substandard cosmetics and have not known who to call.

Walking around some markets in Hanoi such as the night market, Cau Giay student market, Xanh market, Nghia Tan market and Phung Khoang market, we take it easy to find hundreds of different kinds of cosmetics. Blushers, eye-shadow, matte, lipstick, night cream, body lotion, facial cleanser, hair dye and shampoo of world famous brands such as Lancome, Chanel, Christian Dior are sold at a cheap price of only tens of thousands vnd. According to a reporter, the cheapest price with the same authentic products is at least from 700,000vnd to several millions per box.

In the medical field, besides cosmetics, supplementary foodsare currently the goods which have high demand and are facing great risk of counterfeiting. As an example, presently,people with cancer are interested in cancer treatment support product which is Vidatox of Labiofarm (Cuba), but when we search for information about this drug, we can see hundreds of thousands of results with hundreds of thousands of selling addresses with personal effects, authenticpersonal effects and authentic drugs with many different prices. Consumers do not know how to test the authentic or counterfeit quality of goods because even exclusive distribution representatives of products also said that it is difficult to test exactly contents of the products bynormal eyes besides outside identification of labels are badly printed.

Nguyen ThanhPhong, Director of the Food Safety Department of the Ministry of Health, acknowledged that many supplement foods are labeled with foreign brands, but they are actually domestically manufactured or floating goods or goods of unknown origin, which are transformed into authenticimports. Also speaking at the Conference summarizing the 2016 work resultsof the Hanoi city Steering Committee 389, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tuan, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee said that according to the inspection, most counterfeit food products come from China. A box of supplementary food "made in China" imported to Vietnam only costs several tens of thousands vnd. After adding labels and being transformed, they are sold in the market at price of several hundreds of thousands vnd, even several millions. Great profits from the counterfeit and substandard supplementary food business cause increase in traders and trade line of counterfeit supplementary food, Mr. Tuan emphasized.

Also according to the Director of Hanoi City Steering Committee 389, through recent cases seized and detected showing that perpetrators counterfeit sophisticatedly and invest sufficient tools, equipment and modern machines to pack and label the products like authentic products. Especially, the counterfeit supplementary foods do not stop at products labeled with foreign brands such as US, Japan and Australia, but there are counterfeit products and fake products labeled with domestic famous brands.

It is dangerous to use fake goods, but drugs (and fake supplementary foods and cosmetics) are products directly relating to people’s health,which are more dangerous because they directly harm the life of people. Counterfeit and substandard goods have been a long-time problem but it has not been resolved thoroughly. This problem requires management responsibility of the competent authorities. Fake drugs not only can not cure disease but also make it worse and unpredictable, and cause drug resistance. In the worst case, it causes death to patient. But most consumers who use this particular counterfeit good do not know that they bought counterfeit drugs at price much more expensive than authenticdrugs.

By the end of 2016, consecutive dispatches of the Drug Administration announced that some counterfeit drugs or drugs of unknown origin which were circulating in the market were discovered. Drugs were counterfeited including augmentin for injection 1g/200 mg, labeled with SDK: VN-8614-04 of GlaxoSmithline company; Biolactyl powder 1g, labeled with SDK: VNB-4085-05 and chlorpheniramineMaleat 4mg tablets, labeled with VNB-4087-05 of Imexpharm Pharmaceutical JSC.

According to Truong QuocCuong, Deputy Minister in charge of the Drug Administration, the proportion of substandard sample drug shipment is about 3.3% and it is not easy to detect counterfeit drugs. The profits from counterfeit drugs are large that counterfeiters of drugs use more sophisticated techniques which are harder to be detected. Counterfeit drugs are only discovered when they are marketed and the manufacturers compare them to their authentic drugs.

Particularly, in the field of supplementary foods, Nguyen Thanh Phong acknowledged, the test of quality of these products takes a lot of time and they must be sent to many agencies for comparison. Because of profits, many people have deliberately carried counterfeit goods from abroad to Vietnam via personal effects. Therefore, the competent authorities also meet difficulties in controlling the "input" into Vietnam market, which led to the status of counterfeit products and infringement of intellectual property rights rampant in the market.

Even if being detected, these are onlyimposed to administrative penalties in accordance with regulations, the penalty is not high enough to deter the individuals and organizations violating intellectual property rights. At present, the functional forces do not strictly coordinate with each other, causing difficulties in market control and leading to the problem of counterfeit and fake products being increasingly overwhelmed with authentic products on marketing method and price. "Nguyen Thanh Phong, Director of Food Safety Administration Department realized.

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Products in the medical field have directly related to the health and life of people, they need to be strictly controlled and strictly inspected, and measures and sanctions for the handling of perpetrators who have acts of manufacturing, transporting, trading and stockpiling of fake drugs must be enhanced. We must stop from the starting source not to permit fake drugs to circulate and cannot wait the wakeup of businessmen’s conscience.