NCRI – The presence of counterfeit drugs in the Iranian market is not a phenomenon that has recently been discovered. But this time, the Iranian regime’s Director General for Drug Monitoring and Evaluation has spoken about behind the scene import and distribution of these false prescription drugs. Experts have previously warned about the side effects of taking these drugs.
Counterfeit medicines in Iran have had many catastrophic consequences so far, a topic that has been raised many times by government media. The state-run ISNA news agency, quoting Akbar Abdollahi, director general of drug monitoring and evaluation, announced that the Iranian Ministry of Health is still involved in the negative consequences of counterfeit medicines.
“The Ministry of Health is still charged with drugs and products of hepatitis C, AIDS and medications that have led to blinding people, because they were smuggled through emergency companies and were not registered,” the report said.
Import volumes of emergency companies are huge. Most of these drugs are smuggled. Ministry of Health officials acknowledge that adequate control over the quality of drugs is not applied. Quality control of the smuggled drugs is not generally possible.
Part of the smuggled prescription drugs are counterfeit medicines. According to Abdollahi, 300 to 400 types of “bad drugs” are circulating in the country. “These medicines are imported by urgent companies, they are not registered and have no official representatives,” he said.
Behind the scene of Import of counterfeit medicines
The state-run ILNA news agency in a report talks about the import of counterfeit drugs and untold story of the booming market of medicine in Iran.
The Director General for Drug Monitoring and Evaluation said that emergency companies that operate in the field of drug delivery and distribution across the country provide drugs from suspicious and invalid sources.
“These companies buy medicines from wholesalers in Turkey or Germany, most of which are not authorized to sell to Iran,” Abdollahi said.
It is said that more than 30% of drug wholesalers in Germany, Austria and Turkey are run by Iranians. These wholesalers are essentially designed to trade medicine with Iran and their work is to import counterfeit medicines from India.
They cater counterfeit medicines from India and import them into another country like Turkey. Interestingly, these drugs will enter Turkey without a sales license. Then these counterfeit drugs come from Turkey or similar countries to drug markets in Iran.
The authorities of Tehran’s Medical System (Council) have said that “at least 20% to 30% of the drugs used in the area of slimming, beauty and cosmetics are smuggling, counterfeiting and caustic, which threaten the health of the community.”
The phenomenon of the import of counterfeit drugs and the provision of medicines by urgent pharmaceutical companies from inadequate and unreliable sources are no secret to the officials. However, so far no effective steps have been taken against this action.
Director General of Drug Monitoring and Evaluation describes this negative social phenomenon as “crises and disorganizations.”
Abdollahi said: “I believe that the existence of urgent companies in the country is due to crises and disorganization. In a planned and calm country, there is no need for urgent companies, and they are registered according to the rules of the drugs and have a specific importer who takes the quantitative and qualitative responsibility of the drugs. But in a country that is in crises and not well-planned, a small number of small companies for import of the drugs is formed.”
He provided no further explanation to the media about the types of crises, as well as the causes of inappropriate planning.
