www.cheapdrugsfromrussia.com
By Peter Pitts on April 30, 2008 – 8:13 am
According to Mikhail Zurabov, the Russian Health and Social Protection Minister, the number of counterfeit drugs has “significantly” decreased, and now amounts to 3-4% of the Russian drug market.
Most international organizations put the rate of counterfeits in the Russian health care system at 12%. Reducing this exposure to 3-4% is an exaggeration of truly Soviet agitprop proportions.
How did the Comrade Minister accomplish such a feat? Why he changed the law! (And we all know how much the Russian Mafia believes in the rule of law.)
Mr. Zurbov commented, “The penalties for such drugs has been defined and the decision was made to revoke the license of a company producing counterfeit drugs.”
That’s right, they reduced counterfeit medicines almost entirely by threatening to “revoke” the license of counterfeiters.
Surprisingly, the Minister neglected to mention the number of “licenses revoked,” people arrested, or counterfeit medicines seized (and to reduce the Russion national volume from 12% to 3% there must have been quite a lot.) Maybe he’s just really modest.
In any event, now that Russian drugs are so safe, maybe we should introduce legislation to allow importation into the US market.
Posted in Counterfeit Drugs |
One Comment to “www.cheapdrugsfromrussia.com”
Leave a Comment
April 30th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Peter,
Very good insight into what was *not* said. I have not seen any news about legal actions.
Say what you will about China, but at least they punish drug counterfeiters. Five officials from a Chinese pharmaceutical company that sold a tainted antibiotic responsible for more than a dozen deaths were sentenced to up to seven years in prison this week.
Unfortunately, I fear that journalists have more to fear in today’s Russia than sellers of counterfeit drugs.
Adam