One in three drugs fake in Arab world

A GCC health official has called for strict penalties on countries and companies found engaged in exporting or importing adulterated and counterfeit drugs in order to curb the spread of such drugs in Arab countries.

Director General of the Executive Office of the Council of Ministers of Health of the Gulf Cooperation Council Tewfiq Ahmed Khoja said 35 percent of medicines circulated in some Arab countries are fake — in other words, one in every three drugs is counterfeit.

Khoja, who was addressing the 2nd Arab conference on foods and drugs in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh, attributed the rising rate of adulterated drugs to poor monitoring by regulatory bodies which are supposed to protect the market from such drugs.

 

http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/734171