Spurious pharmaceutical drug cartels have been hyper active in almost all poor and developing countries. Though India has left behind the ‘poor country’ tag quite some time ago, the spurious stuff traders have not vanished. They have in fact increased in number. Any popularly or critically required stuff attracts crooks to counterfeit the goods and entice gullible as well as stupid buyers to grab the horribly worthless products too willingly mainly because Indians are still a price-conscious community, not a quality conscious one as yet. In undivided Uttar Pradesh alone, the drug traders play around with at least Rs 17 000 crore annually and 1.5% of this could be from fake drugs dealers. The disease has already spread like wild fire after smart phones turned every pinhead smart. So, fake drug dealers are now on the rise and thriving-nay flourishing like never before, all over the country. The big reason behind this malady is that the successive governments have been run mostly by rascals. The good ones in the system have remained a minority kept kicked away at all times. It is believed the Modi administration is a shade better only because the boss has chosen to be guided by brainy bureaucrats.
Odisha has recently discovered a few fake drug dealers having the best of times for years. Some sleuths in the drug control department, after being tipped by anonymous characters, raided a few outfits and discovered fake drugs, popularly prescribed to treat hypertension, are flooding the market and killing people. Perhaps, the incredibly low price or commission given to end dealers forced the monitoring functionaries to scoop the stuff and swoon on the clandestinely run outfits and nab killer traders right away.
Meanwhile, the Government of India has decided to use the QR (Quick Response) code to let the users recognise spurious drugs instantly. This bar code brought to use in the1960s has parallel lines of different thickness that one gets to see in markets. A simple photo scanner recognises the product and its price instantly. The Q R code is more sophisticated and accesses within no-time information about the authenticity of a product, outfit or individual entity. Hara Masahiro, an engineer at Aichi-based Denso automotive company of Japan who invented this has made sure it is extremely safe and foolproof than the American bar codes. Instead of parallel bars, this incorporates squares of various sizes to form a unique pattern the way God has given every human an only of its kind finger skin surface. Recently, the codes have even begun to appear on gravestones as part of a service that provides information on the deceased. It is possible to cram 200 times more information into the QR code than a standard barcode would accommodate. The codes can contain basic information like links to websites or large volumes of data consisting of over 4,200 alphanumeric characters that are encoded into the patterns. In India everyone is now using the QR code in recognising anyone or anything. The smallest street shopkeeper as well as the poorest wage labourer uses phone payment facility based on the QR code technology which has literally solved all cashless transaction issues.
Now to spurious medicine racketeering : Evwn in a developed country like the USA Procrit, a drug used by cancer and AIDS patients to fight fatigue and anaemia, was counterfeited in 2002. Counterfeiters watered-down the medicine with non-sterile tap water to one-twentieth of the strength listed on the label. The tap water posed a risk of infection in already weak patients.
All the same, it is fairly easy to suspect a spurious stuff only if one is a little vigilant. The buyer of products must look for
Spelling errors. Misspellings of the product name, manufacturer, or main ingredients on medicine bottle labels or other packaging are the biggest, and some of the most noticeable, mistakes crooks leave behind.
Medication appearance. Drugs may look suspect by size and colour.
Medication quality can be experienced by using in a day or two unless it is new and being used for the first time
Compromised packaging. This is a tell-tale symptom. On closer scrutiny, one can easily recognise something inherent is missing.
Fortunately in India anytime that seems worrying should send a warning signal to send a 10 digit code as SMS to 9901099010 to get a reply back if the drug was authentic. Most people do not know or haveneverbeen expressly told that after passing the production and packaging phase, it is labelled with a unique code.
Check the seal:
The security seal, especially in bottled medicines, should not be damaged or tampered. Look for a crack or break in the sealing tape before making the purchase. If it is broken or tampered, it better be rejected.
Check the packaging:
This is the simplest method. If brought before on several occasions, the font, spellings, and the colour would tell one if it’s the same genuine one. Most often, one or all of these giveaways are very identifiable in fake medicines.
Visual inspection of medicines is critically important. The World Health Organisation has severally advised consumers to look for common physical attributes in medicine tablets. Small pieces of tablets or excessive powder at the bottom of the medicine container can be known within seconds. Besides, the following blemishes be looked for:
• Cracks in the tablets
• The appearance of crystals on the container walls or the medicine tablets
• Softening or hardening of the medicines
• Swelling, spots or discolouration of the tablets
Price is the best giveaway for fake medicines. A sudden dip in the price of the medicines should provoke the consumer to go for double-check. The chances in such a case can mean that it is spurious. Medicines are usually manufactured in comparatively the same manner; hence, changes in the pricing of one brand can greatly affect all other pharmaceutical companies unless companies are too different in stature.
The biggest test is how the consumer feels. Unexpected side-effects or allergies felt after use means the drug could be fake or spoilt. The immediate impact is allergy or uncomfortable feeling. The spurious drugs may contain incorrect substances, improper dosage or hazardous substances, which do not elicit any therapeutic effect. A doctor must be consulted without delay.
Fortunately, the Drug Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) has come up with a technological solution to check the authenticity of medicines, which consumers can use on the SMS mode. One has only to type “Authentication code” and send to 9901099010 to receive an authentication message from the pharmaceutical manufacturer within a short time.
It is important to know that the red vertical line on the packaging of medicines indicates that the drug cannot be purchased without a registered doctor's prescription. This critical information never shared by government officials or traders.