Counterfeit drugs are heading by the bucket-load towards the UK’s National Health Service, according to a recent report.
The news comes just one month after the EU announced proposed legislation against counterfeit medicines.
One example of this worrying trade involved a large quantity of counterfeit schizophrenia treatments that were purchased by the NHS in 2008. These fake drugs had a life story as follows:
- Made in China
- Labelled in French
- Shipped to Singapore
- Somehow ended up in Liverpool, England
- Bought by the NHS
- Discovered to be fakes!
Yesterday Chinese authorities promised a thorough “investigation”, and to “punish companies or individuals who manufacture fake pharmaceuticals for export”.
“We will track them down” said a spokesperson for the grandly-named State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA).
Sadly, these reactionary statements sound all too familiar.
In recent times many people have been killed by fake heparin, cough syrup (contaminated with diethylene glycol), and other food stuffs contaminated by melamine—all produced in China.
After the melamine case the authorities scurried around arresting 30 people and firing the head of a watchdog agency.
A previous head of the SFDA was less lucky – he was executed by the Chinese state after being blamed for allowing the production of dangerous counterfeit products.
This statist posturing is illiberal and largely futile.
If the Chinese government wants to stop the flow of counterfeit and contaminated products it should grant media freedom, allowing cases to be reported immediately and warning consumers of dangers to their health.
It must allow free courts to operate, in which victims (or their families) can obtain redress for being harmed by contaminated products (including fake medicines).
Give consumers this protection, and allow good manufacturers to defend their trademarked goods against devious criminals—these measures may not sound “tough”, but they are the best way of guarding against deadly, fake medicines.
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