Spurious drugs are pouring into the country as a corrupt administration looks the other way. Killid reporter Shoaib Tanha investigates the situation in Herat.
Spurious drugs are pouring into the country as a corrupt administration looks the other way. Killid reporter Shoaib Tanha investigates the situation in Herat.Two years ago the government’s Pharmacy Department, Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), tested 450 medicines imported into the country to find 9 percent were “fake and unusable”.
Since then the MoPH has halted the import of 21 drugs and blacklisted the importing companies. Abdul Hafeez Quraishi, head of pharmacy in the ministry, says 20 pharmaceutical companies are under investigation. He believes the importing companies probably have links with pharmaceutical companies making spurious drugs abroad.
Patients complain they have not got better after taking the medicines that were prescribed by doctors. There is concern that the government may have lost control of the drug market to smugglers who are behind the imports of fakes into the country.
Safiullah, a resident of Herat, says, “I took my patient many times to the doctor and I purchased the prescribed medicines. I think the diagnosis of the doctor was fine but the imported medicines were fake. When I took my patient to India he was cured by the same drug I had bought in Afghanistan.”
Indifferent inspectors
Even pharmacy owners have complaints. They say for every tonne of good quality medicines they buy from the retailers, they are saddled with 10 tonnes of spurious imports.
Abdul Rawoof, owner of Rawoof Pharmacy, who has been in the trade for 23 years, says he has not seen so many fake medicines in circulation. According to his estimate, the percentage of spurious drugs has increased over the last year by 20 percent.
He believes fake medicines are coming from Pakistan. “Pakistan produces the fake medicine and imports it to Afghanistan under the trade mark of developed countries … The medicines can be harmful to human health,” he warns.
Rawoof blames the MoPH of not “properly supervising” the imports. Officials from the health department may visit drug importers for inspection but these are just “symbolic”, he insists.
Mohammad Rafiq Sherzai is an expert in the health department in Herat province. He considers the absence of testing facilities for spurious drugs as the main problem. “Right now fake imports come from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and some of the Arabic countries.” Unfortunately Afghan traders collude with dealers in fake medicines abroad, he says.
His suggestion: MoPH should draw up a list of medicines that it will import; only medicines not on the list can be imported by private traders.
But will it be allowed by corrupt officials in the administration?
Sayed Askar Anwari, assistant head of Herat provincial council, says, “If the health department of Herat was to control the importing of medicine some officials may prevent it because of the relations they have with the companies.”
Meanwhile, Hajji Ghulam Farooq Sarwari who heads the Pharmacists Union in Herat and is himself an importer of medicines from Iran says his company’s imports are always inspected by the Pharmacy Department before it is “allowed for distribution”.
Weak policing
Sarwari agrees the market is full of spurious medicines. “There are 750 pharmacies in Herat, and it is not easy to control all of them. Fake medicines may be distributed in the districts. Recently we warned all pharmacies (in the Union) that if they sell spurious drugs they would be prosecuted.”
Emadi, a medical analyser, believes fake drug smugglers have moved in anywhere governments are weak. “Due to security problems, those who are responsible for implementing laws on health and the investigation department cannot work in insecure areas,” he says. “The borders are open and anyone can easily import the fake medicines to the country for their own illegal interests.”
Holes in the justice system are also factors enabling the spurious drug market to thrive.
An official in the Herat Attorney General’s office who did not want his name to be revealed rejected the existence of corruption in the judiciary and claimed that they have successfully prosecuted for fake drug offences.
Authorities in the provincial health department insist they confiscated 40 tonnes of spurious drugs from pharmacies and importers, which were burnt in the presence of high-ranking authorities over the last three months.
Ghulam Sayeed Rashed, the head of the health department in Herat, blames Pakistani traders for selling fake drugs. He claims the health department has “prevented” the imports (from entering the market) many times. Samples taken from the imported goods at the customs shed are tested for quality.
The lengthy process of customs clearance, which could take up to six months, is another factor encouraging drugs smuggling, according to some officials. Tamim Kakar, the assistant director of the Herat customs office, says the reason for the delay is a “lack of clarity in (quality) standards”. “Unless we are equipped with diagnostic laboratories this big health risk will not be solved,” he insists. MoPH’s Quraishi thinks, “Until all medicines sold in Afghanistan are not from big pharmaceutical companies, the problem will persist.”
