Fighting adulterated medicines

Astana, July 15, 2009 (Khabar) - Healthcare Ministry deals with adulterated medicines. The Ministry of public health is suggesting that responsibility for distributing adulterated medicines should be toughened. This has been announced during a briefing in Astana by the chairman of the pharmaceutical supervision Syzdyk Baimukhanov. The Healthcare Ministry offered to introduce penalties including up to 5 years of imprisonment for distributors of adulterated medical products instead of 150 monthly calculated indices. The given regulation will be opportune and effective, believes Baimukhanov. According to him, the existing fine for selling adulterated medicines in Kazakhstan is incommensurable with the threat inflicted on lives and health of people by fake medical products. According to data provided by the Ministry of Public Health, over 30 cases of adulterated medicine sales were registered in the country since 2004.

Syzdyk Baimukhanov, chairman of pharmaceutical supervision committee, Kazakhstan Ministry of Public Health:
- When people come to drugstores to buy medication, they hope to receive effective medication. In the worst-case scenario, they could get a medical product which can harm their health considerably.

Specialists recommend purchasing medicines only at licensed drugstores in order to avoid buying fake products. Every medicine must have a conformity certificate and descriptive notes in two languages – Kazakh and Russian. In case of doubt in authenticity, one should turn to the territorial subdivision of the Pharmaceutical Supervision Committee. Apart from that, the ministry is developing an identifier of medicines. As soon as the electronic directory is finished, it will be significantly easier to detect fake products for consumers.