CAIRO: Ahmed Gebril, head of Alexandria's Pharmacists' Syndicate, warned consumers of faulty or repackaged expired drugs being sold in the market. He advised consumers to be wary of people impersonating sales representatives who repackage expired drugs and sell them, violating all safety regulations set by the Ministry of Health as well as the field's work ethic. "Pharmaceutical companies' refusal to retrieve the discarded drugs opened the door for those people to recycle them and distribute them in the market which puts people's lives at risk, Gebril told the Middle East News Agency (MENA). "The problem of faulty drugs is a global one. However, it is more common in developing countries, Gamal Abd El Wahab, general secretary of the Pharmacists' Syndicate told Daily News Egypt "The drugs are smuggled and repackaged in underground factories with new labels and expiry dates and then sold, Abd El Wahab said. Medication used for treating malaria, rabies and AIDS are the most common faulty drugs dealt in developing countries; while medication used for cancer patients and antibiotics are more common in developed countries. Some medication is tampered with by increasing or decreasing the percentage of the active substance in the drug, or by adding harmful external substances. This may cause the drug to be ineffective or have minimal effect, and in some extreme cases may cause death due to the toxic nature of the substances added. "The role of the syndicate is limited to spreading awareness and alerting the executive and monitoring authorities to take action if a case like this is exposed, Abd El Wahab said. A new law that was recently approved imposes a one to three-year sentence on faulty drug advertisers after several cases were revealed. Statistics conducted by international companies specialized in this field show that in 2008 the global market for counterfeit drugs is estimated at $73.5 billion, $22 billion of which are in the Egyptian market alone. According to the Ministry of Health, Egypt has more than 7,600 registered drugs approved by the ministry. New regulations have been implemented to combat this phenomenon. Drug companies can now only deal with credited distributors and credited stores. Drugs that may be found at pharmacies without factory invoices will be confiscated.
