Author: ELVIS PEREIRA

Source: Jornal da Tarde - SP - 08/09/2009

The pirated drugs, found in street vendors, fairs and on the internet, reached the shelves of small pharmacies, a fact that helped Brazil to break, in the first semester, the record of seizures of fake medicines. From January to June, the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) and the Federal Police collected 316 tons of pirated drugs, the largest number ever recorded in the country. In the same period in 2008, they were 45,5 tons.

In addition to the increase being attributed to the reinforcement of inspection, with the growth of actions on the border and against illegal laboratories, Anvisa and the National Council for Combating Piracy, linked to the Ministry of Justice, confirm that the trade in pirated medicines gained body by expanding the coverage for pharmacies, especially small ones.

According to the executive secretary of the Ministry of Justice and president of the National Council to Combat Piracy, Luiz Paulo Barreto, some drugstores started to offer them in response to the strong competition from the illegal ones.

For the head of Intelligence at Anvisa, Adilson Bezerra, with this change in the points of sale of pirated medicines, it became even more difficult to eliminate the trade in these products.

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.

Before reaching the pharmacies, pirates were - and still are - widely found in the hands of street vendors or street vendors and also on the internet, which makes police action difficult. “When we go to see it, the site is hosted in Miami, Paraguay, Bolivia. And there is no way to punish those responsible, ”explains Luiz Paulo Barreto.

In addition to representing a public health problem, illegal trade has become a security issue. "In every ten gun and drug seizures, two have counterfeit drugs," says Adilson Bezerra. "We started to have gangs that started to see this type of crime as a possibility of excessive profit."

Pirate remedies - a definition that includes those produced without permission from health surveillance, smuggled and counterfeit drugs - guarantee high gains due to the low cost of production, transportation and distribution.

To manufacture them, flour, a press and packaging are usually enough. Ready, they are transported through the same channels in which other articles of illicit origin circulate, such as CDs and DVDs.

When they reach large urban centers, such as São Paulo and Rio, they are stored in warehouses. Later, they will end up in the hands of whoever wants to sell them.

Medicines brought in from abroad come mainly across the border with Paraguay. “People tranship using small boats on Lake Itaipu (border with Paraná) and unload on the Brazilian side,” says federal delegate José Moura. "From there, the medicines are taken to another location for the assembly of the boxes and, later, they are dispatched to the rest of the country."

The delegate considers the triple border region the most worrying. Another point that needs reinforcement is at ports and airports.

The hope of the sector to beat the illegal ones is the adoption of a traceability system, which is in the test phase. The project, the result of a partnership between Anvisa and the pharmaceutical industry, 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 find out about the factory and the distribution and sales points at home, at a pharmacy similar to that of supermarkets,” says Luiz Paulo Barreto.

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

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 10% of the medicines consumed in the world are not original. Until 2010, the pirate market is expected to generate US $ 75 billion per year. Collaborated Fábio Mazzitelli

10 to 15 YEARS jail is the penalty for those who sell pirate medicine in the country, heinous crime

10 percent of medicines consumed in the world are not original, according to WHO