Since 2003 the control of medicine inspection has been done by the Ministry of Healthcare (MH). Prior to that this function was entrusted to the “Medicine Agency” CSJC. In 1996-2003 they have revealed 150 brands of fake medicine in the Armenian market. Also, in CIS first fake medicine was found in Armenia in 1996.
According to international statistics 52% of medicine faking goes for antibiotics. According to monitoring most frequently considerably expensive and demanding medicines are falsified. According to the data 2005 the turnout of medicines in the international trade network amounts to 450-600 billion USD. And according o the data of the WHO 10% of the circulated medicines are fake ones. Some international organizations believe that the amount of fake medicine circulation is 25%.
Since 1998 the law on medicine of RA acts in RA. The NA is going to discuss at the second reading the new draft on medicines, however the experts think that even the most perfect laws may be violated without the right control especially in this sector. Specialists think that the medicine sector in Armenia is in a careless situation; the state bodies indifferently relate to this sector, which is so important for the national security of the country. They just consider it as a branch of business. On October 23-24, 2006 the capital city of Russian Federation hosted the first international conference on “Europe against fake medicine”. The WHO believes that many people have died because of fake medicines. Thus, in 1990 about 100 children died in Nigeria because of some poisonous materials stirred with hair dye. In 1992 about 50 children died in Bangladesh because of an anti-freeze material. In Haiti 89 children died because deethylene mixed with “Paracetamol” medicine. Similar cases were registered in Argentina, Bangladesh, India and Nigeria. In this country about 2500 people died because of fake implants. As Armenia is mostly a medicine importing country (80-90% of sold medicines are imported) the penetration of fake medicines to our country because very realistic and hazardous. The solution of the issue is the professional regulation of the business branch. “This is an issue of state concern. This issue is a priority for the MH, which 2-3 times a year conducts serious inspection, which is mostly directed to checking licenses of importation. Fake medicines don’t have limits. There are about 1000 registered pharmacies in Armenia, 500 of which are located in Yerevan. No matter what organization is in charge of inspection it’s going to require daily supervision because the threat of falsifying medicines may happen any day,” says Gagik Grigoryan, head of the expertise department of the “Medicine Agency” CJSC. He also informs that about 4000 brands of medicine are registered in Armenia, 70-80% of which are of European production.
The first fact of medicine falsification was registered in 1995. Before that the public wouldn’t even assume that medicines would ever be falsified. Falsified means duplicated medicines, the contents of which don’t correspond to the planned contents. “If the active ingredients are not in the medicine it may cause an anti-effect for the disease. The falsifier may also have a harmful purpose of doing that to poison humanity. That’s the reason why people carefully examine medicines before buying them and they treat to medicine as potential means for conducting terrorism,” says Grigoryan. That’s the reason why since 2002 the WHO has started to apply the term “medicine terrorism”. The expert thinks that great medicine producers supervise the market of medicines trying to prevent falsifications. A mentioned case of that was the emergency call of the Armenian representation of “Glaxosmithkline”. They suddenly found fake medicines of their brand in the market and after the examination they found extra “ampicyline” in the contents. Grigoryan also mentioned that unlike other CIS states Armenia has endorsed a criminal code article 280, according to which 3-5 arrest is anticipated for falsifiers.
To the most frequently asked question, how the consumers can protect themselves from fake medicines, Grigoryan answered that the guarantee of medicine quality is the company, which imports medicines. Grigoryan also warns that about 40% of medicine salespeople are not medicine specialists and consider it only business.
A death case was registered in Armenia because of extra organic ingredients in medicine.
Grigoryan is also concerned that the advocacy of medicines is done in a wrong way. Sometimes the commercials also give the untruthful information about medicines. He especially expressed his concern about inorganic proteins, which rarely even cause death cases because of the wrong treatment. “Very often doctors will have to be careful as well, to give the right prescriptions to the patients,” said Grigoryan. In 1990s “Herbalife” started importing certain medications and conducting strong marketing on their sale. At present the most famous network marketing companies are the “Vision” and the Chinese “Tyanshi”. These companies are mainly trying to include doctors in their network, who by closely cooperating with the companies prescribe their medicines to the patients. “Those organizations register some of their brands but most of the stuff is not. No one knows how they prescribe,” says the expert. The experimental center has also found out that those products very often didn’t have the right ingredients and the packing was done based on international criteria. According to the data of the US Food and Medicine Agency over 2000 serious cases were registered in the USA caused by proteins and food steroids. There were about 100 death cases registered. “This fact must make the people of the world alert about medicines. People must be more careful when buying such stuff. The government bill anticipates serious control on medicines as well as methods of cautiousness,” emphasized Grigoryan. In 1990 about 100 children died in Nigeria because of some poisonous materials stirred with hair dye. In 1992 about 50 children died in Bangladesh because of an anti-freeze material. In Haiti 89 children died because ethylene mixed with medicine. Similar cases were registered in Argentina, Bangladesh, India and Nigeria. In this country about 2500 people died because of fake implants.