Piracy and medical products

By ETCO

Author: Aurimar José Pinto *

Source: The State of S. Paulo

Globalization and new technologies were fundamental for the improvement of health services worldwide, but they were also instruments for the advancement of piracy in the market for medical products and devices. The falsification of products in the medical field is scary because, in addition to growing, it is becoming more sophisticated every day. And the risk is directly reflected in the patient's life. The goal and challenge for representatives of large companies, suppliers and associations in the health sector is to work together with the federal government to raise public awareness of the fight against piracy.

Every pirated product in the healthcare industry can result in a lost life. The scenario, which is already serious in the area of ​​medicines, is also very worrying in the sector of products and medical supplies. Currently, about four daily cases of piracy in the health sector are registered by the World Health Organization (WHO). In 2007, 1,5 new cases of counterfeiting were known.

Nowadays, the economic pressure for lower prices on health products is one of the causes of piracy. It is a secondary market, carried out mainly on virtual auction sites, where the origins of the product and the manufacturer are difficult to inspect and control.

The growing market on the Internet allows counterfeit products to proliferate all over the world, due to the ease of import without the proper control of this trade. The user can buy, for example, a heart valve as easily as buying a suitcase or a shirt from a football team.

It is worth mentioning that counterfeit products do not follow international quality rules and standards. They are not sterilized, they are not tested. They are just copies - sometimes well made - of products already on the market. Just as any citizen buys a pirated CD or DVD, there are medical centers that purchase counterfeit products. That is, if pirated CDs do not work because of their poor quality, you can imagine what can happen with a medical product without guaranteed quality that will be used in a surgical procedure. The result can be tragic.

In recent years, counterfeiters are specializing in “deceiving” health care experts. At the event Combating Piracy in the Health Sector, held on October 31, at the American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham), in São Paulo, the National Health Surveillance Agency and representatives of the industry and product distribution, discussed the worrying situation of falsification. Many product lines, high or low complexity, sterilized or not, are being counterfeited.

The common characteristics of counterfeits are: the poor quality of the material and the lack of sterilization. However, the most worrying is that users and authorities can hardly identify these differences with the naked eye. Hence the need for a task force that establishes policies and procedures that are reversed in punitive and severe actions to practitioners.

Another factor that strengthens piracy is the financial and technological resources that counterfeiters have. They generally act under the command of criminal organizations that easily obtain original copies of products and packaging, which, associated with the availability of packaging technologies, make them of good quality, protecting a product with no quality, safety and security. efficiency.

The relationship between high profits and small sanctions is also another relevant factor in the growth of piracy in the medical field. Low efficiency in enforcing laws ends up stimulating the counterfeiter. We need to study a new system of legislation to combat piracy and establish a new legal framework that allows for a strict penalty for pirates.

The goal of the main representatives of the health sector and the government is to carry out a task force to combat the pirated product. Manufacturers, suppliers, hospitals and clinics, doctors, sanitary agents, customs agents, the Federal Police, among other participants in the chain, should be protagonists in reversing this situation. And with a single purpose: to save human lives.

* Aurimar José Pinto is president of the Brazilian Association of Importers of Medical-Hospital Equipment, Products and Supplies (Abimed)