Majid Khalil and Shanaz Hirani have translated a book named (Medicine Trade), the book has consisted of the following topics:
What is counterfeit medicine? According to the World Health Organization (WHO), forged medicine is made by using dangerous and false ingredients because the materials that use in fake drugs are discrepancy to real drugs. Some times its ingredients contain toxic materials or the instructions will prescribe wrongly.
What are the fake types of drugs? (WHO) announces the counterfeit drugs may include: products with the correct ingredients or with the wrong ingredients, without active ingredients, with incorrect quantities of active ingredients, or with fake packaging.
The book shed lights on the reasons behind developing on trading fake medicine as the government doesn’t confirm to have such a problem or its risks of that phenomenon, lacking of the legal and penal frame for the doers, lacking of monitoring the medication products importing and distribution, insufficiency cooperation with the authorities and drug institution investigators, unavailability of exchanging information between the public and private sector, disregarding the credible pharmacists, poverty and illiteracy, pay no attention of the protecting social system and irregularity of the distribution centers.
Moreover, the book concentrated that throughout (191) country members of (WHO) only (20%) ready to follow the foundation rules to organize their medicines. Furthermore, it mentioned that the risk of forged medication trade is equivalent to the weapon industry, thus counterfeit medicine businesses get in touch with (600) billion dollars across the world annually which is rather than drug trafficking.
In a report that (WHO) has spread producing fake drugs in the developed countries is (15%), additionally, in the fledgling countries goes to (30%), likewise, in Latin America and Africa reaches to (50%).
(30%) of the fake medicines are made by the third world countries which don’t have any material to recover illnesses, for instance, India (75%), China (12%), African countries (7%), and the European countries (6%). While all these kinds of pharmaceuticals are distributed in the world markets and use via people.
(WHO) mentioned, more than (100,000) people a year die in the world as a result of fake drugs, and (30-70%) of these drugs use in Africa. Also, every year millions of Malaria infected people are passing away because of counterfeit medicines.
The authors of the book named three Arab countries as a sample of importing forged drugs such as Libya (70%) of the medicines in the local markets are counterfeit, Yemen (60%) and the last one is Iraq which passes a chaotic situation since (2003) and the fake medicine amount in the Iraqi markets around one billion dollars per annum. The majority of the medicines are produced by India, China, etc.
Currently, the number of drug companies around ten thousand in the world while (90%) of medicine trade controlled by ten world giant companies. The authors emphasized that many sources believed that the wars have happened around the world belongs to the policy of the great medicine companies and medicine traffickers because if the war prolongs in a country the drug companies take the opportunities to use for their benefits, the best sample for supporting that idea is the wars of Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
Drug trading doesn’t only belong to the giant countries or companies, the terrorist groups do such a business because their main financial sources depend on the trade of counterfeit medicines.
