SEREMBAN: A minimum RM500,000 fine and mandatory jail sentence of at least one year awaits any individual caught selling counterfeit or adulterated drugs under the proposed Pharmacy Bill to be tabled in Parliament soon.
A company involved in a similar undertaking will be slapped with a minimum RM1mil fine and its owner jailed for a minimum of one year under the proposed legislation set to replace a clutch of archaic pre-Independence laws.
The comprehensive Bill, which has been deliberated for close to a decade now, will replace the Registration of Pharmacist Act 1951, Poisons Act 1952, Sale of Drugs Act 1952 and the Medicines Act 1956 (Sale and Advertisement).
The Health Ministry is seeking feedback from the public, drugs and cosmetics industries, pharmaceutical companies, associations and academic institutions on the new legislation before tabling the Bill.
The public online engagement ends on Nov 29.
The ministry said the absence of specific provisions in the existing laws made it difficult to check the flooding of fake and unregistered drugs, including traditional medicines, in the market.
“We hope the new legislation will be a deterrent to those who hope to benefit from the loopholes in the existing laws,” the ministry said.
Under the Sale of Drugs Act, people arrested for selling fake drugs are only liable to a RM50,000 fine or a jail term not exceeding three years. Companies may only be fined up to RM100,000 for a similar offence.
Under the new Bill, individuals caught selling unregistered medicines may be fined up to RM100,000 as against RM25,000 at present.
Also, those found to have sold psychotropic pills are now only liable to a fine of up to RM10,000.
The ministry said the new Bill also proposes the setting up of a National Pharmacy Council to formulate new regulations on drug classification, prohibited and controlled items and fees for the various licences.
Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai cited statistics which showed that 22,970 SSFFC (substandard/spurious/false label/falsified/counterfeit) drugs worth RM27,461,997 were seized last year.
In 2010, the ministry seized 16,862 SSFFC drugs worth RM22,000,047 and 12,825 SSFFC drugs worth RM13,596,290 in 2009, he said.
“The trade of such drugs has been a growing problem because of the limitations of old legislation ... heavier penalties will give the ministry more teeth in tackling the problem,” he added.
It was reported that some counterfeit drugs like sex stimulants, painkillers, eye drops and cough mixtures are dangerous and can kill.
The ministry's Pharmaceutical Services Division director Mohd Hatta Ahmad said most of these drugs were brought in illegally and sold in traditional medicine and sundry shops and roadside stalls.
The public can check whether a medicine is counterfeit via several methods like using a Meditag decoder found in licensed pharmacies to check the autenticity of the hologram label on the product.
Another way is to verify the registration number printed on the outer packaging by going to www.bpfk.gov.my and searching the “registered product” bar.
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