Spurious drugs worth millions are smuggled into the country, and the government has not been able to stop it.
Afghanistan produces only 5 percent of the medicines sold by pharmacies. An estimated 5 billion Afs (75 million USD) of drugs are imported but there is only one laboratory for drug testing.
For years people have been complaining about substandard drugs. How medicines bought outside the country work, but not if it was the same drug purchased in Afghanistan. Pakistan, India and the United Arab Emirates are the biggest exporters of medicines to the country followed by Iran, China and Bangladesh.
The six-month-old national office for quality control of imported medicines accepts it can monitor only a fraction of imports. Noor Shah Kamawal, the chief executive, says 29 companies have been black-listed for spurious imports, and 62 tonnes of poor quality medicine have been burned. He says the government has sanctioned three more testing laboratories for Nangarhar, Kandahar and Herat.
Where is the loophole that is being exploited by importers? There are claims of corruption in the handing out of import licences; also, of corruption at locations where the medicines are checked.
Khanjan Alokozai, deputy director of the Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industries, accuses the Ministry of Public Health of giving permits to “non-standard companies”. In addition, there is corruption in customs offices – inspectors are bribed to look the other way.
“There is a problem of quality as we don’t have standard laboratories. People’s complaints are genuine,” Alokozai adds.
The Ministry of Public Health rejects all accusations, and invites anyone who has a complaint to provide documentary evidence. The matter will be investigated and action will be taken against the guilty, the ministry promises.
No documentation
A union of medicine importers claims that 40 percent of pharmaceuticals are smuggled into the country. Khaleq Watandost Zazai, union head, says the illegal medicines are of very poor quality. “Unfortunately in any pharmacy, 70 percent of medicines have no document; the situation in the provinces is worse than in Kabul,” he says. Zazai alleges the government is aware of the transport companies that bring in fake drugs. “These companies put good quality medicine on the top and poor quality beneath; everyone is aware of this. We have complained to the government, and hope officials will take action,” he says.
The authorities in the customs offices point to the difficulty in monitoring Afghanistan’s porous borders. “We have a 2,400-km border with Pakistan and 900 km border with Iran – it is impossible to prevent the import of illegal medicines,” says Ahmad Reshad Popal, head of customs.
Prevention of smuggling is the task of the Ministry of Interior Affairs. It has mobile teams working night and day that have arrested smugglers with fake medicines, and handed them over to law enforcement authorities.
Zazai of the medicine importers’ union says a committee it has set up independently inspects pharmacies, confiscating fake medicines that are set on fire. An estimated 60 tonnes of spurious drugs were destroyed in the Gazak area of Kabul in coordination with concerned government departments.
Killid has independently confirmed Zazai’s statement with doctors, owners of pharmacies and hospital officials.
Dr Hasibullah Wardak, an internal medicine specialist at the private Al-Khedmat Hospital says, “The reality is that 50 percent of medicines are of poor quality …”
Din Mohammad, a pharmacist in Abdul Pharmacy, says the other give away regarding fake medicines is that it is cheap. “Those who bring in spurious drugs from abroad have to bring poor quality and cheap medicines to be able to sell,” he says.
