Source: The State of S. Paulo - SP - 08/09/2009

This year Brazil recorded a record of seizures of counterfeit drugs. In the first semester alone, the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) and the Federal Police collected 316 tons of these drugs. Last year, there were 45,5 tons. Two factors contributed to this scenario - the growth of gangs and the reinforcement of enforcement, especially at the border and against illegal laboratories.

Most of the seized batches are products against erectile dysfunction, analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs. They put the population's health at risk because they may not work and because they contain wrong doses of raw material (more information on this page).

Marketing, which was done by street vendors and via the Internet, is now also migrating to pharmacies and drugstores, according to the executive secretary of the Ministry of Justice and president of the National Council to Combat Piracy, Luiz Paulo Barreto. The head of Intelligence at Anvisa, Adilson Bezerra, also confirms the new trend and says that, with this change, it has become more difficult to eliminate this trade.

The Regional Pharmacy Council of the State (CRF-SP), which participated in a blitz of the Federal Police this year, claims that it has already opened ethical proceedings against pharmacists caught selling pirated drugs. “We realized that they are small establishments, some even without a business license. The consumer must always try to buy in suitable establishments ”, says Marcelo Polacow, vice president of CRF.

Pirate remedies - a definition that includes those produced without permission from the Health Surveillance, smuggled and counterfeit drugs - guarantee high gains for those involved in commercialization due to the low cost of production, transportation and distribution. To manufacture them, flour, press and packaging are usually enough. Upon reaching urban centers, such as São Paulo and Rio, the product is stored in warehouses.

DIFFERENCES

One way to identify the counterfeit medicine is through the packaging, which must have an expiration date, batch number and name of the responsible pharmacist. In addition to representing a public health problem, illegal trade has become a security issue. “Out of ten gun and drug seizures, two have counterfeit drugs,” says Bezerra. "We started to have gangs that started to see this type of crime as a possibility of excessive profit."

Medicines brought in from abroad come mainly across the border with Paraguay. "People tranship using small boats on Lake Itaipu (PR) and unload on the Brazilian side," said PF delegate José Moura. "From there, the drugs are taken to assemble the boxes and then dispatched to the rest of the country."

The delegate considers the Triple Border region the most worrying. “Because it is a route not only for medicine, but for pesticides, weapons, drugs. It is an entry that needs more attention. ” According to Moura, another point where enforcement needs to be strengthened is at ports.

The drugs also land in the country at airports. In 2007, the International Airport of São Paulo, in Guarulhos, appeared in first place in the ranking of apprehensions of the Federal Revenue. Last year, Galeão, in Rio, came in second place.

To try to contain the sale of illegal drugs, a traceability system is being tested. The project, the result of a partnership between Anvisa and the pharmaceutical sector, consists of the printing of a special code on the medicine packaging. The same code will bring the name of the laboratory, to which distributor he sold his product and to which pharmacy the distributor passed it on. "Consumers will be able to know at home or at the pharmacy - in a reader similar to that of supermarkets - the factory and the points of distribution and sale of the medicine", says Barreto.

The manager of economic affairs of the Association of the Pharmaceutical Research Industry (Interfarma), Marcelo Liebhardt, says that the measure will also help combat cargo diversion. "We are waiting for Anvisa's regulation."

COLLABORATED FÁBIO MAZZITELLI