Source: Jornal do Brasil, 16/04/2009

It seems that the government has finally discovered that the integration of public agencies, in addition to the planned inspection and repression, represents the best antidote to combat a criminal market and harmful to the health of the population. In the first three months of the year alone, 170 tons of illegal drugs were seized, almost a thousand percent more than the entire volume confiscated last year. The investigations reached an alarming conclusion: the drug trade was flooded by a real spill of counterfeit, unregistered or smuggled products. It thus became an immense public health problem.

The most serious thing, as the report published yesterday by Jornal do Brasil pointed out, is that piracy is no longer an activity of small smugglers to invade legally established pharmacies, especially on the periphery of metropolises such as Rio and São Paulo, in addition to the interior cities , where controls are precarious. Official data from the Ministry of Justice and the Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) show that, among the 85 pharmacies inspected in the first quarter of this year, 39 were banned and their owners arrested for illegal trade.

The Federal Police informs that the volume of fake medicines seized in this first quarter is equivalent to more than R $ 1 billion. The leak, however, does not stop there, as it adds to the losses caused to the legally established industry. Last year, for example, just to ensure the safety of its products and circumvent piracy, the laboratory Lilly - holder of a brand indicated for erection problems, which was copied and resold illegally - invested R $ 2 billion. Although there is no estimate on the losses caused by counterfeiting in the pharmaceutical sector, projections point to figures above R $ 10 billion.

Of the 170 tonnes of drugs seized between January and March, 90% were on the shelves without registration of origin and invoices - which means, according to the authorities, that they come from the theft of cargoes of drugs operated by the traffic, composed of specialized gangs. Another 5% were produced in Asian countries and arrived in Brazil through Colombia, Bolivia and Paraguay. The remaining 5% were simply counterfeit, that is, they have no effect against illness. Specifically in Rio, the trade in illegal drugs is operated by neighborhood pharmacy chains, whose names are kept confidential by investigators.

What is concluded is that Brazilians are being deceived, poisoned and killed because of piracy. Although late, the government seems to have awakened to the epidemic dimension of the problem. This was the first time that public agencies of the Union (such as the Federal Police, Anvisa and the executive secretary of the Ministry of Justice) worked together to make a fine-tooth comb in the clandestine medicine market. The citizen hopes that it will be the inauguration of a new milestone in the inspection of the sector. And that those responsible for this crime against humanity suffer the deserved trial and condemnation.