Police raids snare thousands of doses of unlicensed drugs

July 31st, 2007

The city police and the Jakarta Food and Drugs Monitoring Agency announced Monday they had seized Rp 25 billion (US$2.75 million) worth of medicine distributed without permits during a series of raids over the past two months.

Five suspects were arrested and two others remained on the loose, the city police’s director of special crimes Sr. Comr. Sigit Sudarmanto said.

The confiscated medicines included over 15.6 million tablets, 46,000 capsules, 990 bottles, nine sacks of Chinese drugs and more than 13,000 other medical items.

Police also seized vaccines for diseases such as polio, measles and Hepatitis B, as well as food supplements, Calcium and vitamins C, B12, B1, B Complex.

The drugs were for treating infections, pain, allergies, respiratory illnesses, gastrointestinal illnesses, joint problems and sexual dysfunction.

“Some of the medicine may be genuine,” Sigit said.

An official at the agency, Heru Purwanto, said, “The originality of the medicines can only be determined by laboratory checks.”

Police alleged their preliminary investigation revealed the suspects were stockpiling, distributing and selling imported medicines and fake drugs as well as medical equipment, all without licenses from the National Food and Drugs Agency.

Heru urged the public to be cautious of fake drugs and to take a close look at the registration numbers and agency circle marks on medicine packages.

“The printed circle marks and registration numbers show that the medicines have passed the agency’s tests for quality and safety.”

There are three types of circle marks: red for prescribed drugs, blue for semi-prescribed drugs, and green for over-the-counter drugs.

There are also various types of registration number labeling, including “DKI” to indicate imported prescribed branded drugs, “DBL” indicating local over-the-counter drugs and “DTI” and “DTL” to indicate imported and local semi-prescribed branded drugs. For the generic drugs, the letter G is used instead of D on the label.

“The public should also be cautious about buying drugs that are much cheaper than the original prices,” he said.

“Unlicensed drugs can be as cheap as half the price of genuine ones,” he said, citing an example of the price of a blister packet of illegal Ponstan brand pain-killer, which costs as little as Rp 3,000. The official market price is around Rp 15,000.

Heru said, “The wide spread of unlicensed drugs is probably due to drug producers’ aim of accelerating the distribution process.”

Normally, a producer must wait a maximum of 100 days for laboratory testing before receiving a distribution license, Heru said.

The five-year term of registration of a drug officially costs between Rp 500,000 and Rp 1 million. Producers must re-register every five years.

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