MILLION A YEAR

The sad information that was announced during the international conference on the fight against fake pharmaceutical products held in Baku on 8-9 February was published almost on all international news portals. As is known, counterfeit products inflict not only economic damage. It is worse when they cause irreparable damage to health. The figures that were quoted by the secretary-general of the Economic Cooperation Organization, Khurshid Anwar, are really shocking: the annual turnover of fake medicines in the world is 32bn dollars. In many countries, false medicines account for about 10 per cent and in some countries - for about half of the general turnover. All this causes more than one million deaths per year. According to the WHO, most of the fake medicines in the world are produced in China.

"A survey carried out in 24 countries shows that 60 per cent of fake medicines are produced in China and exported to other countries," said the secretary-general of the World Customs Organization (WCO), Francois-Michel Danet. Among the countries that produce fake medicines, he also named Turkey, Brazil, Chile, Italy, Russia, Ukraine and India. Danet stressed that the fight against fake medicines is at the same level as the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking. He admitted that the WCO is helpless in the fight against counterfeit medicines and called on states to support efforts in this direction. However, Danet pointed that no production of fake medicines has been registered in Azerbaijan.

"But Azerbaijan should not stop at what it has achieved since various fake medicines, most of which are children's food and toys, are continuing to be imported into the country," he said.

The chairman of the State Customs Committee, Aydin Aliyev, who opened the conference, stressed the need to expand cooperation, deepen relations between government agencies and the private sector in the fight against the production of fake medicines. At the same time, the importance of the problem of counterfeit pharmaceutical products was emphasized in Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's address to participants in the conference.

The head of state pointed out that it is necessary to join the efforts of all countries in the fight against the turnover of counterfeit medicines. "These products pose a serious threat to the economic interests of states and deal a blow to the health of people, first of all the growing generation," the Azerbaijani head of state said in his address. In his opinion, in order to prevent such crimes, countries should coordinate their activities, improve national legislation and institutional mechanisms and increase oversight over the quality of medicines.

We should point out that the conference was attended by representatives of the World Customs Organization, Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), Interpol, the World Health Organization, as well as the customs services of 21 states and 17 pharmaceutical companies.

Heightened attention

Since his appointment in 2006, Minister of Health Ogtay Shiraliyev has been paying heightened attention to the problem of counterfeit pharmaceutical products. On the whole, 215 pharmacies which commit various violations of the law in their work have been discovered in Baku. Strict measures have been taken against each of them. Fifty illegal pharmacies have been closed down altogether, while the owners of others were cautioned.

Several pharmacies have also been closed down in various regions of the country. In 2006, the minister banned the use of medicines produced by private companies to treat patients. This instruction was aimed at preventing doctors from cooperating with pharmaceutical companies, as well as companies that launch medicines. At the same time, oversight over the work of all medical institutions was tightened.

According to the centre for innovations and supplies of the Health Ministry, a ban has also been imposed on the import of more than 40 medicines, produced mainly in Holland, Russia, Ukraine and India, which turned out to be unusable according to the results of tests carried out by the central pharmaceutical laboratory of the Health Ministry.

Among these medicines are medicines produced by the Russian open company Tatkhimfarmpreparat, the St. Petersburg open company Farmatsevticheskaya Fabrika, the Dutch company Holdem Medical B.V., the Indian company Lark Laboratories Ltd and Ukraine's Biostimulyator.

The most common violations in the country are counterfeit medicines, insufficient control over the quality of medicines, the failure of pharmaceutical companies to observe rules of storing and selling medicines, the requirements of state standards on the identification of medicines and the lack of full and reliable information about medicines.

One of the most frequent violations which is committed even by companies that produce high quality medicines is that they put "illiquid assets" on sale. This definition is still used in the pharmaceutical industry and implies medicines that have at least one fault. If it is put on sale, it will also be regarded as couterfeit because the buyer does not know that he has been sold a low-quality product under the guise of a high-quality medicine.