If one wears a fake branded shirt, it is the producer of the
real brand that suffers infringement of its rights. But when a
patient has been injected with a counterfeit injection, the
consequence could be disastrous and even fatal.
This kind of disaster has befallen some patients who were
injected with a kind of fake injection produced by Qiqihar No 2
Pharmaceutical Company. The injections have resulted in kidney
failure.
The State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) has issued an
emergency notice to ban the sale of all medicines produced by this
company throughout the country and a special team has been sent
down to northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, where the firm is
located, to conduct an investigation.
Preliminary investigations indicate that there are loopholes in
the production process of the problematic injections and a kind of
raw material might be the culprit.
Pharmacies and hospitals all over the country have been
mobilized to search through their warehouses for medicines produced
by this firm. It has been reported that all the drugs found have
been sealed.
But do we have enough reason to heave a sigh of relief? It seems
not at least until we know how the firm got certification from the
SFDA, how its production process slipped past the supervision of
the local food and drug administration, and how its fake medicines
managed to get through various checkpoints supposed to guarantee
unsafe drugs don't end up on pharmacy shelves.
We would hesitate to swallow tablets that doctors have
prescribed for us because we cannot make sure other pharmaceutical
firms are producing the right medicines without loopholes in their
production processes.
The firm involved is said to have been a medium-sized
state-owned enterprise that was shifted into the hands of a private
entrepreneur in 2005. But it was reported that problems existed
before the firm changed hands.
Were there any under-the-table dealings behind the acquisition
of the firm? If there were, do they have anything to do with the
production of the fake medicine? Is there any corruption involved
in the case? Is this just a single case or the tip of the iceberg
of irregularities in the entire process of the approval, production
and sale of medicine?
A thorough investigation needs to be carried out to answer all
of these questions. The arrest of several officials in the SFDA
early this year has already hurt the reputation of the
watchdog.
If a clear picture could be provided for this case, the culprits
duly penalized and effective measures worked out to tighten
controls on the sale and production of medicine, the SFDA could
re-establish its reputation.
We sincerely hope that the case can be handled in such a manner
that we can put out of our minds the suspicion that the medicines
supposed to save our lives might turn out to destroy our
health.
(China Daily May 15, 2006)