Materia Medica Malaysiana

HAIAP Acknowledges Malaysia For Its Drug Regulatory System

PENANG, April 25 (Bernama) -- Health Action International Asia Pacific (HAIAP), an organisation based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, has acknowledged Malaysia's drug regulatory system as one of the best in the region and among developing countries.
Its advisor and coordinator, Dr K. Balasubramaniam, said Monday Malaysia had put in place stringent measures to ensure that all drugs coming into the country were properly screened.
Speaking to reporters after the opening of the three-day Asia Health Forum here, he said that although there had several reported cases of drug counterfeiting in the country, the situation was not as serious compared with other developing countries like Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
"There is always room for Malaysia to improve its drug regulatory system," he said.
Based on studies done by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), almost 10 per cent of drugs in the market in Southeast Asia were believed to be counterfeit while in some countries, more than 50 per cent of the drug supply was made up of counterfeit medicines, he said.
Balasubramaniam said that among the countries that had the largest number of counterfeit drugs with over 50 per cent in the market were Africa and Nigeria.
The main problem facing these countries in drug counterfeiting was weak and lenient authorities in controlling the flow of drugs into their country.
More than 100 participants from non-govermental organisations (NGOs), lecturers, medical practitioners and health care professional from Asia Pacific countries like Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Pakistan, and Indonesia attended the forum jointly organised by HAIAP and a few other agencies including Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).
Meanwhile, the forum's co-Chairman, Dr Mohamed Izham Mohamed Ibrahim, said counterfeit drugs were a worldwide problem and were difficult to detect, investigate and quantify.
"That is why it is difficult to estimate the true extent of the problem here in the country," he said when asked by reporters for statistics on counterfeit drugs in Malaysia.
"Among the fake drugs administered in the country are mainly Panadol and Viagra pills as well as drugs sold through websites on the Internet," he said.
Mohamed said counterfeit drugs were of poor quality, had low content, contained no active ingredient or had been replaced with a wrong ingredient and had wrong packaging and labelling.
"Counterfeit drugs do not usually have a manufacturing label or registration number and may differ in terms of colour, shape and texture and the only way to differentiate them is if they do not work like usual or one suffers side effects after consumption," he added.