Tanzania and Kenya are both issuing
warnings about 'fake' and unregistered drugs. Unfortunately, many
people have been led to believe that 'fake', 'generic', 'counterfeit'
and even drugs with 'Made in China' on them are all the same;
useless. The chances of protecting people from substandard drugs, out
of date drugs, those with the wrong ingredients, those with no active
ingredients or those with the wrong quantities of ingredients, etc,
is now seriously diminished.
The pharmaceutical industry, not short
of a few billion dollars itself, wants regulatory authorities and
others to protect the industry's profits, so they are in favor of
such scare tactics. But they have brought about the situation where
people will produce their own versions of drugs and create a thriving
black market. Big Pharma has failed to produce drugs at a price that
is affordable to those who need them most.
I suppose I have to spell it out that I
don't think there's anything wrong with making a profit. But many
drugs are developed using public money, in publicly funded
institutions. The cost of researching drugs, which is very high, is
not entirely borne by the industry. Only the profits are entirely
borne by the industry. And the same industry often spends many times
more on advertising, lobbying and marketing than they do on
research.
There really is a problem with drug
supply in East African countries; there are too few of them, many are
of the wrong kind, some are fake or counterfeit. But some are
generic, that being the best that people in developing countries, the
majority of people in the world, can afford. And all drugs, even
generic drugs, are overpriced. There is still no true competition,
where prices are set according to what the market can bear rather
than what the over-subsidized industry can grab.
Pharmaceutical outlets, even many
health facilities in East Africa, can be badly run, semi-formal,
informal or downright illegal, and are in bad need of regulation. But
running around closing them down or curtailing their activities will
do little good unless proper facilities are made available to people.
The lion's share of health spending in East Africa goes into the
pockets of Big Pharma, mostly for branded drugs and products
developed with Western needs and economies in mind. There's no
shortage of money.
Unsafe drugs are only one of the many
risks that East African people face in pharmacies and health
facilities. The priority is to improve conditions in these facilities
and increase people's access to them, not to increase the amount of
donor and public money that helps inflate pharmaceutical industry
profits. Drugs are only a part of health care, but only when there
are adequate health facilities with enough well trained and equipped
staff. Stop using aid money to support pharmaceutical multinationals!
[For more about unsafe health care and cosmetic services, visit the Don't Get Stuck With HIV website]
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