So the Government Analyst-Food and Drugs Department (GA-FDD) has issued yet another fake drugs alert, described in its media statement as the “circulation and release of substandard/falsified (SF) medication” on the local market through retail pharmacies.
Up until now there has been no notable public reaction. Somehow, you get the feeling that the sale and use of fake drugs is probably not as serious a consumer concern in Guyana as it ought to be. Never mind the fact that tens of thousands of people in poor countries (some of them, quite possibly, right here in Guyana) die following the use of what are sometimes termed “bad drugs”. Most of the deaths occur in countries where a high demand for drugs combine with poor surveillance, quality control and regulations to make it easy for illegal distributors and well-placed corrupt officials to access the market. Guyana, arguably, falls into this category too.
The loopholes that allow for fake drugs to thrive in Guyana have long been a matter of public knowledge and the reality is that we are ridiculously poorly protected against the might of a US$30 billion, largely unregulated global industry in which there are mountains of profits to be made by manufacturers, middlemen of one sort or another, corrupt state officials and indifferent retailers.
The GA-FDD itself has long conceded that the proliferation of fake drugs cannot be fought off by simply rolling out wave after wave of ‘regulations’ that are not backed by any comparable enforcement infrastructure, so that in its present circumstances the Department has been reduced to periodically extinguishing (or attempting to extinguish) fake drugs ‘brush fires’ and not really going much beyond those kinds of exercises. Beyond that we have seen no really persuasive evidence that the system, as a whole, is ‘on top of its game’ insofar as matters of detection, prosecution and punishment of offenders are concerned. Frankly, it would hardly be an exaggeration to say that even when account is taken of the efforts of GA-FDD, the fake drugs distribution sector enjoys, more or less, its ‘own way’ in Guyana.
Globally, the fight against fake drugs in poor countries is almost always a fight against vested interests, entrenched and influential business and bureaucratic institutions which, together, exert control over the acquisition and movement of fake drugs and the critical decision-making institutions that afford their unhindered distribution. So that all too frequently we are faced with the altogether anomalous situation in which the very institutions that are supposed to help protect against the proliferation of fake drugs, are themselves ankle-deep in enabling and protecting the ‘trade.’
Here in Guyana, the GA-FDD continues to swim against a tide of defiance by the layers of ‘resourceful’ players at the various levels of the fake drugs trade. In its efforts to ‘hold the line,’ it continues to be undermined as much by its lack of even reasonable deterrent capacity as by the ‘weight’ of movers and shakers behind the fake drugs trade. More than that, it is no secret that, as presently resourced, the GA-FDD is nowhere close to possessing the capability to provide even a reasonable deterrent against the proliferation of fake drugs, the simple truth being that over time the state’s verbal undertakings to incrementally upgrade its capability (at least to a point where it can serve as a reasonable deterrent to the proliferation of fake drugs) has not been matched by corresponding action. Even the present official undertakings to significantly enhance the Department’s capacity are unfolding too slowly given the weight of the GA-FDD’s responsibilities, so that the extant capabilities of the Department continue to be nowhere near a match for the might of the fake drugs industry.
From time to time the GA-FDD may happen upon an instance of fake drugs infiltration. That is not good enough. What we need is a monitoring structure that is robust enough to ‘raise the stakes’ for the traffickers and their facilitators. That, manifestly, is nowhere near the case at this time.
In the instance of this particular disclosure we find it passing strange that, apparently, none of the outlets where the fake drugs were unearthed appeared able to provide, through records which the law dictate that they possess, information with regard to their suppliers. What the GA-FDD must now tell us is what action it can and presumably will take under regulations stipulated in the relevant sections of the Consumer Affairs Act and/or the Food and Drugs Act to secure from the establishments where the fake drugs were found the identities of the sellers/distributors. The regulations, after all, speak to “adequate record keeping for traceability purposes particularly for the sale of medication for patient use.”
One other concern. In circumstances where establishments are found to be offering for sale to the public ‘medications’ that turn out to be fake, isn’t there a responsibility here to effect disclosure of their identity in the public interest? And given the incessant warnings that have been issued by the GA-FDD about pharmacies offering fake drugs for sale, isn’t it time that the known delinquents face the full force of the law? Or are we to assume that when it comes to the issue of fake drugs the GA-FDD’s authority is strictly limited to making periodic noises that are mostly without any serious deterrent effect?