Experts defend greater inspection of medicines

By ETCO

Source: Portal do Senado Federal, 13/06/2008

Specialists in health and pharmaceutical products, invited to participate in a public hearing on Wednesday (11) in the Senate, were unanimous in stating that the fight against counterfeiting of medicines must, necessarily, and, above all, for an effective inspection in the productive chain of these products, mainly in distribution, with tracking mechanisms that guarantee the authenticity of medicines.

The hearing took place at the Commission for Science, Technology, Innovation, Communication and Informatics (CCT) and aimed at instructing the processing of the bill authored by Senator Valdir Raupp (PMDB-RO) which determines the mandatory identification of medicines through of electronic system (PLS 521/07). The request for the debate was made by the rapporteur of the matter, senator Marcelo Crivella (PRB-RJ), and by the committee chairman, senator Wellington Salgado (PMDB-MG).

The “insufficiency” in the inspection of the entire drug distribution chain was recalled by the president-director of the Association of National Pharmaceutical Laboratories (Alanac), Carlos Alexandre Geyer, during the debates. He emphasized that the Ministry of Health has managed to reduce counterfeiting of medicines in Brazil, but that the lack of inspection is still very great.


- Before thinking about the implementation of new technologies to track and guarantee the authenticity of products, there needs to be an increasingly active and effective inspection - he said.

The president of the Brazilian Institute of Ethics in Competition (ETCO), André Franco Montoro Filho, pointed out at the meeting that the level of informality in the area "is alarming", providing "relevant damage to the development of the sector and to society as a whole". For him, combating this informality will only be achieved through a set of simultaneous actions. As an example, he suggested the adoption of an efficient tracking system and greater control of medicines distributed in the public health system.