E-DRUG: India to reimburse costs of drug shipments which avoid EU (3)
------------------------------------------
A reply to: [The moderator diagrees with Ajong as European customs authorities do not check quality of shipments in transit. And other transit ports would not do that either. To ensure quality is the responsibility of the sender as well as the recipient. In extreme cases the government in the country of the sender may check. This has been done with donations coming from doubtful manufacturers where the government wanted to double-check]'
I would like to disagree with the Moderator on the subject that drug quality is not checked by the customs. The quality of a drug is not only embedded in its content!
Considering the dangers that poor quality medicines (as opposed to other poor quality goods) may cause to human health a clear distinction should be made between counterfeit goods and counterfeit medicines with regards to the regulations governing their inspection, seizures, penalties and control. In my opinion the fight against 'bad' medicines should be a collective one. This can only be achieved if all stakeholders including drug manufacturers, import/export companies, warehouses, govt agencies, NGOs, customs and clearing houses, care givers, patients and people of goodwill put their hands on deck for a common cause. Singling out a few of the above to check quality should strongly be discouraged.
The WHO has given a clear definition of cunterfeit/substandard drugs. Eventhough some may argue it is ambiguous but that is the only template we have for now. This definition is not only limited to the drug's content, rather fake labelling, fake packaging and holograms are part of it. These are visual characteristics that do not require expert training to inspect. A custom officer may detain such medicines if s/he finds them suspicious for further verification. Because the average counterfeiter intends to reduce the cost of production suspicious paperwork, incomplete documentations, fake certificates of analyses are some simple but important aspects of quality control/assurance to review while medicines are in transit. If stopped at the ports many lives will be saved in turn.
Let's all together look for practical solution(s) to this underlying drug problem. No govt or institution should be defending itself that it is not involved in this type of activity and remain inert to it. Rather they should assist directly or indirectly to curb or stop it altogether.
As we know the transit of these medicines is usually from some parts of Asia to parts of Africa whose countries still have partial, non-functional or non-existent regulatory agencies in place. Leaving quality check in the hands of the respective exporting and importing countries alone will be not be enough to stop the trade of fake products.
Kind regards.
Magnus Ajong Atemnkeng, PhD
magnusajong@yahoo.com
Montreal, Canada
[The moderator may have jumped too quick to conclusions and agree that some aspects of quality may be discovered in custom, but it should then be checked before leaving a country and/or when arriving at the port of entry. In transit, somebody may tamper with the consignment. Recent seizures have had to do with claimed patent infringement, not quality. Views are welcomed!]