How to distinguish counterfeit medicines? Medications: Trust but Verify Are Medicines Counterfeited?

“Doctor, I drink all the medicines, but it doesn’t get better” - such a question is often asked by patients to the attending physician during appointments in public institutions and private clinics in our country. What is the reason that the medicine does not work? It is extremely difficult to answer unambiguously. The effectiveness of drugs that a patient uses to treat a particular disease depends on various parameters. And one of them is the integrity of the pharmaceutical company that put it on sale. How urgent is the problem of counterfeit medicines in Russia and how to distinguish an effective medicine from a low-quality product? The answers to these questions in the investigation from MedAboutMe.

What are counterfeit drugs

Medicines can be original (produced by the company for the first time) and generic (reproduced or being copies of the original). Counterfeit medicines do not contain substances that are listed on the package. They may turn out to be ordinary pills that have harmless chalk or glucose in their structure, but sometimes they contain highly toxic and dangerous substances, so they can be harmful to health.

The problem of the sale of counterfeit medicines is relevant not only in Russia - it worries specialists and doctors in all countries of the world. The distribution of substandard medicines is in third place in terms of profitability after the business associated with the distribution of weapons and drugs. According to the American Medicines Center, there is more than $75 billion in counterfeit drug sales. And this huge amount enables their producers and distributors to live a comfortable life, cashing in on the health of the people who buy them. It is for this reason that buying medicines in the USA, Europe and Japan does not guarantee their safety - the problem of counterfeit medicines has captured the whole world.

Official statistics on what proportion of all medicines in the world is counterfeit are ambiguous. The reason for this is that it is extremely difficult to establish the truth and, given that the skill of fake manufacturers is growing every year, we can safely say that even the most pessimistic forecasts are just the tip of the iceberg.

According to the World Health Organization, the share of counterfeit medicines in the world is on average 12%. In countries with a low standard of living and an underdeveloped pharmacovigilance system, this figure is much higher and reaches 80% in some African countries.

In the Russian Federation, according to the Ministry of Health and Social Development, the share of counterfeit medicines is about 10-15%. However, this is hard to believe, given that in the post-Soviet countries, where the healthcare structure remains close to the Russian one (Ukraine and Belarus), this figure is much higher and amounts to more than 20%. It seems that the vast majority of fakes simply do not come to light and continue to fill pharmacy windows.

The legislation of our country in the field of circulation of medicines and the detection of substandard medicines contributes to the prevalence of fake medicines. To identify these fakes, the State Pharmacological Inspectorate was created, and Roszdravnadzor is actively working. Article 238 appeared in the Criminal Code, which makes it possible for distributors of substandard medicines to receive a specific prison term of up to two years in prison. However, there are only a few real criminal cases that are initiated under this article, and the persons who actually received punishment under it. At the same time, as in America and Europe, the sale of counterfeit drugs is punished much more often.

And yet, Roszdravnadzor checks made it possible to identify peculiar anti-leaders among pharmaceutical companies, whose drugs caused the most censure. They were the Murom Instrument-Making Plant and Sopharma JSC.

Manufacturers of counterfeit drugs take the path of least resistance and counterfeit those drugs that are most in demand among buyers. Moreover, it is much more profitable for them that these medicines are not cheap. Therefore, the purchase of a drug worth several thousand rubles is not a guarantee that it will turn out to be real, unlike a penny medicine.

According to the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia, counterfeit drugs are most often detected among the group of antibacterial agents (about 42%), and this figure is approximately the same as that given by the World Health Organization - 47%. Next on the list of the most counterfeited are antivirals, analgesics, drugs that affect the digestive system and hormonal drugs.

Checking medicines for good quality is the work of Roszdravnadzor. However, it manages to cover only a part of medications - about 14-16%. The likelihood that there are fakes among the rest is very high. Therefore, not a single person in our country who goes to a pharmacy to buy medicines can be sure that they are 100% real.

In order to be reliably sure of the quality of the medicine and its effectiveness, it is necessary to send it for a special examination. Of course, few of the buyers will do this, and these laboratories work exclusively with legal entities, which ordinary buyers are not. Most will simply buy the drug on the recommendation of a doctor and believe that it is real, thus hoping only for their own luck.

However, there are ways to reduce the risk of buying a fake, because the buyers themselves are solely responsible for their own well-being and the health of our children.

Roszdravnadzor on its official website posts information about detected counterfeit drugs. To do this, go to the section “Search for withdrawn from circulation medicines”. There you can see the names of specific drugs and the serial number. If the purchased product has similar data with those that are officially withdrawn from sale, but continue to circulate through pharmacy chains, you should not accept it. However, in order to verify the data from the packaging of the goods, you still have to buy it first, and then familiarize yourself with the data of Roszdravnadzor at home. That is, it turns out that the buyer still has to spend the money. In this case, the only benefit is to protect your health from the effects of a counterfeit medicine.

• It is advisable to buy medicines in state pharmacies.

• Never buy drugs online.

• When buying, you must carefully examine the packaging.

• After examining the packaging, you need to read the instructions for medical use (paper insert inside).

• Then you need to examine the medicine itself.

If the buyer has identified any signs that the medicine is fake, he can contact the regional branch of Roszdravnadzor with the purchased goods or directly to the pharmacy with a receipt. All pharmacies are responsible for the quality of medicines, so they are interested in having as few fakes as possible on their windows.

The quality of treatment is a very important condition for recovery. If only our bodies could cope with ailments without outside help! But, alas, all sorts of ailments are still stronger and can be dealt with only with the help of medicines. And to be honest, it doesn’t fit in my head how the earth wears creatures, they don’t dare to call their language people, who counterfeit vital drugs. The topic of this article is counterfeit medicines. Let's try to figure out how to recognize them.

where they sell fake

By default, drugs must be sold in pharmacies. But in search of some kind of rare and vital drugs, you can find suppliers through the Internet or acquaintances of your friends. Be careful, because this is how fakes spread. Have you met such salesmen who offered you an elite perfume at a bargain price, supposedly from a warehouse? Well, if you didn’t fall for such a bait, then believe an experienced person - this is 100 percent fake, and such a perfume was not even close to the original. And the same with drugs. Craftsmen stamp the same boxes and the same blisters, but fill them at best with tableted chalk.

Do you think that you can not buy counterfeit products in a pharmacy? Alas, it is not. The goods arrive at the pharmacy from the warehouse, and people also work in the warehouse, sometimes not the most honest ones. The author of the counterfeit will offer them a share in the profits - and now the “left” product is on the counter. Law enforcement agencies regularly detain scammers, open underground workshops for the production of counterfeit medicines, but unfortunately, some scammers are replaced by others. Our job is to be vigilant.

Counterfeit medicines: characteristic signs

So, you are holding a coveted product in your hands. How can you tell if it's not real? There are several signs that will help you with this:

• on the box and on the bottle or blister different data on the series and date of manufacture of the medication;
• the cardboard on the package is loose, the paint is printed indistinctly and smeared, the text is blurry;
• the instructions for the drug are missing or not printed in a typographical way, but made using a photocopy;
• pills or capsules don't look like they should. You will understand this if you have previously purchased such a drug

The saddest sign is if the drug did not work as it should. Unfortunately, during the time spent on a fake, the disease can progress and the consequences can be catastrophic.

Fake options or what can be inside a fake?

At best, chalk, flour or starch will be inside. You may not even immediately realize that this is a fake, because the so-called placebo effect will be observed.

Another option for the composition of a fake drug is less effective analogues of the drug or a significant reduction in the dosage of the drug. The effect of such a drug will be, but very weak.

And the worst option is when one medicine is replaced by another. For example, you bought a remedy for stomach cramps, but received a laxative.

Where to find information about counterfeiters

Counterfeit medicines are criminalized. All identified medicines must be destroyed. But until the relevant services find all the batches of goods, some of them may linger on the counter of your pharmacy. Take a look at the website of Rospotrebnadzor - they promptly publish lists of manufacturers who have allowed marriage and other violations.

What to do if you realize that the medicine is a fake

If you suspect that the purchased drugs are fake, feel free to go to the pharmacy and request a certificate of conformity or a declaration for this medication. Check the document through the website of Rospotrebnadzor. If it is not registered, contact Roszdravnadzor and the prosecutor's office.

5 tips that can save your health from a fake drug

1. Buy medicines only in a pharmacy.
2. Do not buy medicine if it is much cheaper in this pharmacy than in all the others.
3. Be especially vigilant when purchasing funds from the average price range. They are most often faked.
4. Don't be fooled by annoying ads and colorful flyers in your mailbox.
5. Never buy medicines without consulting your doctor. A miracle drug that your neighbor's friend sells can cause irreparable harm to you.

Take care of yourself and your loved ones, be attentive to medicines, check them for compliance and strictly observe the dosage!

Everyone can face a counterfeit medicine, and this happens because in Russia, unfortunately, as well as in all countries of the world, on the pharmaceutical market you can buy counterfeit medicines, that is, fake medicines, instead of real medicines, states pharmcontrol.ru.

A person, unfortunately, often gets sick, so he has to take medicine. However, it happens that the medicine does not help, although earlier, when taking the same medicine, the effect of treatment occurred. Or, having bought a medicine, we notice that the color of the tablets is some kind of dirty gray, there is not that whiteness and gloss that the tablets of the same medicine that you bought and took before had. Or, having released the tablet from the packaging, we see that it has lost its shape: it has cracked or crumbled. All these changes with the medicine are not a hallucination, but a reality.

Counterfeits are not equivalent to original drugs in terms of quality and effectiveness, since under the guise of one drug there may be another, or there are no pharmacologically active active substances in their composition at all, or there are not enough of them, or this drug is expired, but repackaged in a new package, on which a different, longer shelf life is indicated. Counterfeit drugs are also recognized because they are produced illegally, without the knowledge and permission of the copyright holder, and do not pass the control provided for legal products.

An analysis of the activities of practicing physicians shows that in a number of cases, physicians are poorly informed about the problem of counterfeit drugs, therefore, episodes of insufficient therapeutic effect when using known drugs, manifestations of atypical side effects, an increase in the frequency of allergic reactions, they are usually associated with an incorrect selection of the drug or dosage, predisposition the patient to allergies, etc. At the same time, the vast majority of doctors and patients do not assume that counterfeit medicine may be to blame for all this.

In the Russian consumer market, the number of counterfeit goods, including medicines, is growing every year. The share of fakes in the total sales of consumer goods in 2007 reached 35% (in developed countries - only 5%), and for some groups of goods even higher.

According to experts, the volume of fakes of some product groups in 2007 amounted to:

• medicines - 10-12%,
• food products - 25%,
• alcoholic products - 30%,
• shoes and clothes - 40%,
• cosmetic and synthetic detergents - 55%.

Counterfeit medicines, unlike fakes of other product groups, pose the greatest threat to the health and life of not only an individual consumer or group of consumers, but also the health of the nation as a whole, therefore they are one of the most serious problems not only in Russia, but in almost all countries of the world.

World Health Organization experts suggest that every twentieth drug on the world market is counterfeit, and in developing countries - every third. The volume of trade in counterfeit medicines in 2005 amounted to more than 11%, and by 2010, according to experts' forecasts, it will reach 16% of all medicines sold on the world market. In 2005, the losses of the world's pharmaceutical companies from the actions of offenders amounted to 39 billion dollars, and according to experts' forecasts, by 2010 they will reach 75 billion dollars.

In 2005, 64 drug names with 226 falsified batches were identified on the Russian pharmaceutical market, which is less than 1% of all drugs sold. Is it a lot or a little? This can be understood by doing some simple arithmetic. It is known that each series of a medicinal product produced in the form of tablets is officially produced in an amount of at least 500,000 packages. It can be assumed that counterfeiters produce no less number of counterfeit packages of each series. Knowing the number of counterfeit series and the number of packages in one series, we multiply the first by the second and get 113 million fake packages. If every citizen were to buy one package of such a medicine, it can be assumed that 113 million people would endanger their health as a result of taking it. And if a person has a serious chronic disease, such as heart disease, and during an attack he takes low-quality medicine, then such a “treatment” can be fatal.

When counterfeiting medicines, like any other product (food, footwear, clothing, cigarettes, audio-video products, etc.), offenders, first of all, seek to give them and their packaging the appearance of the original product, without focusing on on their quality and composition. So, for example, when making counterfeit medicine in the form of tablets, counterfeiters strive to accurately reproduce the shape, color and weight of the original tablet.

As a rule, the primary and secondary packaging of a counterfeit drug, as well as the drug itself, is made in the form of an exact copy of the original one, however, counterfeiters do not always manage to pick up identical materials: cardboard, foil, paint and other materials for the manufacture of packaging, which distinguishes it from the original. . Thanks to this, a fake can be visually distinguished from the original drug in appearance. So, for example, fakes of the drug "Suprastin", produced in the form of tablets, differ from the original in the following ways:

• the engraving "Suprastin" on the counterfeit tablet, unlike the original one, is clearer and deeper, the letters are angular, not rounded;
• the height of the tablets is 3.18 mm, not 2.82 mm;
• on the blister (primary packaging), the indication of the dosage "mg" is printed in bold, on the original - in the usual font;
• the name of the EGIS manufacturer, indicated on the front side of the blister (primary packaging), was printed on the reverse side in the form of an imprint, there is no imprint on the original;
• on the cardboard (secondary) packaging, the series number, expiration date, production date are not deeply squeezed out, difficult to distinguish, hard to read;
• the color of the cardboard (secondary) packaging is cream instead of white, with a grayish tint.

(More details about the signs of falsified and rejected drugs can be found in the letters of Roszdravnadzor, which are posted on the Internet at regmed.ru .).

It should be noted that fakes of this medicine were detected 22 times. At the same time, the medicine and packaging of each fake series, and there were 27 of them, contained from 3 to 4 distinctive features, and not all of the above. This may indicate that these forgeries were produced by different counterfeiters. Some series were not issued by the copyright holder at all, in connection with which the fakes of these series were completely withdrawn from circulation, it is not taken into account whether they contain distinctive features or not.

In recent years, several falsifications have been identified based on spelling errors contained in the words in the text of the instruction (for example, the letter “i” was written instead of “e” in the word “medical”).

An analysis of the practice of combating counterfeit and counterfeit goods in Russia showed that, in comparison with other groups of goods that are counterfeited and counterfeited, the identification and accounting of counterfeit medicines is the most organized, this process is centralized and streamlined. One of the elements of this process is the maintenance since 1999 of a constantly updated register (list) of falsified and rejected drugs and their series, indicating the features that distinguish them from quality drugs.

At numerous forums held in Russia, dedicated to the safety and quality of medicines, it was noted that the measures taken by the state to combat counterfeiting of medicines are insufficient. In this regard, citizens themselves need to take all feasible measures to protect themselves from counterfeit medicine.

When buying medicines, as well as when buying other goods and food, it is necessary to inspect the packaging and medicine so as not to buy, and most importantly, not to accept a fake instead of a real medicine.

So you will help not only yourself, but save many of your compatriots from low-quality medicine. It was at the initiative of consumers, according to their complaints, more than 20% of low-quality and about 10% of counterfeit medicines were identified and withdrawn from circulation. So, for example, one of the counterfeit medicines was revealed thanks to the attentiveness of a pensioner who has been taking the same medicine for several years. She noticed that on the package of the drug she received, the expiration date was different from that on the package of the same drug received earlier, while the batch number was the same on both packages. This difference aroused in the woman a reasonable suspicion of the authenticity of the medicine. A further check confirmed the woman's suspicion - the medicine turned out to be falsified, there was no certification.

A few tips when buying medicines in pharmacies.

1. It is advisable to purchase medicines in pharmacies and only in those that have information from Roszdravnadzor about rejected and counterfeit medicines ( Otherwise, how can you sell a medicine without such information!). The greatest likelihood of buying fake or rejected medicine is in small pharmacies such as pharmacy kiosks, pharmacy stores and a pharmacy on wheels. In such pharmacies, only those drugs that are sold without a prescription are allowed to be sold.

In the Soviet Union, all medicines were real. Citizens of the Land of Soviets have never heard of anyone ever daring to fake a drug. Today, even children know about counterfeit medicines that are allegedly hidden on pharmacy shelves. How true is this information? And is it possible to live in peace, risking running into a fake?

Tricks of big numbers

The World Health Organization reports that in developing countries the share of falsified drugs is 10%, and in developed countries - 1% of the total turnover. In Russia, the statistics on counterfeit medicines is ambiguous. The figures published by official bodies and the data of politicians, and even more so of journalists, differ by dozens of times. Thus, the only source of official data in the country, Roszdravnadzor, publicly states that the number of counterfeit drugs in the total number of batches is only 0.02%. At the same time, officials from the State Duma Committee do not hesitate to assert that every fifth medicine in Russia is falsified. And if the press is to be believed...

Scary stories on TV

According to some television programs, only the lucky ones manage to buy real medicine in Russian pharmacies. The high popularity ratings of information programs that expose unscrupulous producers make television people to increase the intensity of passions more and more.

Tragic music, the stern voice of the presenter, flashing pictures of drugs (by the way, for the most part completely real) and the traditional statement "This applies to everyone!". The atmosphere is getting gloomy. The idea that a quick death at the hands of a pharmacist armed with a fake is quite likely is firmly soldered into the consumer brain.

In pharmacies, the echo of each of these programs is heard as soon as the first viewers overcome the distance from the sofa to the counter. Alarmed customers meticulously look for fakes in every pack of aspirin and accuse the pharmacist of all mortal sins. In response, he only wearily dismisses the on-duty phrase about certificates. How is it with fakes from the inside?

Fraudsters - fight!

Pharmacists cannot briefly explain to the layman what efforts are being made to ensure that fakes do not get on sale. And the effort is really great. Each batch of a medicinal product sold in the Russian Federation is subject to mandatory certification. If the drug is imported from abroad, then samples of each batch are taken for analysis at customs points; domestic drugs are confiscated at manufacturing enterprises. The ubiquitous Roszdravnadzor controls this procedure. Thus, the drug enters the wholesale and then retail sales only after receiving state documents that guarantee its quality.

In December 2014, the State Duma passed a federal law criminalizing the production of counterfeit medicines. Now fraudsters addicted to pharmaceutical production can face up to 12 years of general regime. Market participants selling fakes, both medicines and biologically active additives, can also get to places not so remote.

Large wholesalers, who value their licenses, carefully monitor the quality of their products. And large pharmacies, which value their statutory documents no less, buy medicines only from reliable companies that have direct contracts with foreign and domestic manufacturers. And therefore, customers of network, long-term or large pharmacies can be sure of the quality of medicines.

Special signs? These did not appear

And if you still have doubts about the origin of the drug? Is it possible to distinguish a real medicine from a fake right in a pharmacy? Regrettably, modern fakes are difficult to recognize not only for an ordinary consumer, but also for a specialist who encounters the original many times a day. Fraudulent manufacturers take into account the smallest details, and it is sometimes possible to identify counterfeit goods only after a chemical study.

However, frightened buyers try to see something alarming in each package of goods and sometimes they even look at something! But external changes in the packaging and even the drug itself in most cases do not at all indicate a fake. Usually this is only a consequence of the work of marketers - companies often change packaging design. If you are faced with such a situation, ask the pharmacist for the phone number of the medical representative of the company that produces the drug. He will certainly tell you about all the nuances and dispel fears.

If snow-white (cream, bright green, etc.) tablets suddenly change their color, and a precipitate appears in a clear solution, do not rush to conclusions. Read the instructions carefully, and you will very likely find out that this physical phenomenon is acceptable.

Guide to action

But what to do when the soul is still restless? There are a few simple rules, the implementation of which will reduce the likelihood of acquiring a fake to a minimum.

First, forget about buying drugs from your hands (for example, in an exchanger on the forum), where you can easily buy a real pig in a poke.

Secondly, no matter how the price of the drug in a little-known online pharmacy lures you, do not give in to the temptation to save money. The figures say that the largest number of fakes "hides" in the bowels of the virtual trade of small faceless sellers.

Thirdly, buy medicines only in trusted pharmacies - network, well-known, who have earned a name for honest sales.

And the last thing: if you have any questions, study the certificate when choosing medicines - you have every right to do so. And then you will sleep peacefully after watching any of the most terrible "revealing" programs.

Marina Pozdeeva

Photo thinkstockphotos.com

The pharmaceutical market is, first of all, sales. But here there is a specific product - medicines, which are extremely important for maintaining health and even saving lives. Their cost can reach tens of thousands of rubles or more, so counterfeiting medicines is an extremely profitable, but illegal, occupation. It is worth noting that thanks to the coordinated work of various government agencies, counterfeit medicines are becoming less and less every year. However, they have not yet completely left the domestic market and continue to come across in pharmacies throughout Russia. Therefore, it is extremely important to know how to independently check the medicine for authenticity and where to go if a fake is found.

Making counterfeit medicines is a double crime. It is clear that the purpose of scammers is to illegally obtain quick and big profits. But in parallel with this, they endanger the health of thousands of people who expect a good therapeutic effect from the drug. And it does not heal (this is at best). It turns out that a person throws considerable sums into the wind, but does not improve his health at all.

More often than others, falsifications of antibacterial drugs, hormonal drugs, painkillers, medicines for the stomach and intestines are detected. Earlier, cases of counterfeiting of medicines produced by the pharmaceutical companies Aventis, Biosintez, Biochemist, Doctor Reddis, ICN Tomsk Chemical Plant, Krka, Novartis, Moskhimfarmpreparaty, Pliva, "Farmadon", "Ebeve", "Egis", "Jansen" and others.

The path of a drug to our first aid kit begins with the place of its production - a pharmaceutical plant or factory. Here not only drugs are produced and packaged, but also production control of the finished drug on the stability of the dosage form, the concentration of the active substance, etc. Only after internal control, medicines are shipped in batches to large and small suppliers.

The latter not only accept thousands of packages of medicines and dietary supplements, but also without fail receive accompanying documentation for medicines - Declaration of Conformity. Only after that, suppliers can send drugs to pharmacies and pharmacy points, which are engaged in the sale of drugs to the end user - the patient. If necessary, employees Roszdravnadzor(Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare) can check the quality of drugs at any stage of their delivery to the patient.

As we can see, at every stage from the manufacturer to the patient, drugs undergo internal and external quality control. However, this does not prevent attackers from continuing to counterfeit drugs.

The government is working on the issue of special labeling of medicines (like alcohol or fur coats), with the help of which it will be possible to determine the authenticity of a medicine in just a couple of minutes. You just need to scan a special sticker code on the package with your smartphone and you will immediately understand whether the medicine is real or fake. Now in some regions of Russia, such marking has already been launched as a pilot test project. What will happen next - time will tell. However, it should be clearly understood that additional methods of protection in the form of such labeling will certainly lead to an increase in the cost of medicines (according to legislators, on average, by only 1-1.5 rubles). On the other hand, patients will receive only high-quality and effective drugs.

Usually, the patient begins to think about the originality of the drug only if there is no proper therapeutic effect or if uncharacteristic side reactions appear. However, the therapeutic effect of the drug and the appearance of side effects can also be affected by:

1. Misdiagnosis and wrong treatment.
2. Violations of the rules of storage and transportation of the drug.
3. Non-compliance with the recommended method of application and therapeutic dosage of the drug.

If we omit all these points, then after ineffective treatment, suspicions of a fake medicine are quite natural. So how to identify counterfeit drugs?

1. Before or immediately after the purchase, carefully look at the packaging of the drug, evaluate its integrity and quality. Carefully review the font of all letters and check the words for errors. Believe it or not, attackers quite often make spelling mistakes in the instructions for use and even on the packaging of the drug!
2. If you suspect a counterfeit, you have every right to familiarize yourself with the documentation confirming the quality of the drug - the consignment note from the supplier and the Declaration of Conformity for this batch. In pharmacies, an invoice is kept on a mandatory basis, and the Declaration is sent by the supplier after a corresponding request. According to the submitted documents, you will be able to evaluate the originality of the drug.
3. If you still have doubts, you should contact the manufacturer of the drug or the person responsible for receiving claims. Manufacturers always list their contact details at the end of the instructions and sometimes on the medicine packaging. The manufacturer, like no one else, is interested in ensuring that patients receive high-quality treatment with real medicine.

Check medicine online

You can check the authenticity of the medicine by barcode. To do this, look at the first 2-3 digits of the code and make sure that the country of origin matches the information on the package. It is important to note that such a check does not guarantee the authenticity of the drug, since fraudsters can indicate the barcode of the original drug. However, such a check would not be superfluous.

Barcode codes of different countries

The second step is verification of medicine for authenticity by serial number. To do this, you need to go to the Register of Medicines Withdrawn from Circulation, which is maintained by Roszdravnadzor on the basis of daily verification of certain batches of drugs.

To perform a search, click on the button "Advanced Search", fill in the fields TN(trade name) and Series. This will be enough for the correct operation of the system. Next, click the button "Display results". As a result, we can get one of two results:

1. “Data not available” means that there are no restrictions for this drug or for this series of drug. Roszdravnadzor did not find any violations in the medicine.
2. A list with the name of the drug appears - carefully read the attached information letter, check the series again. If you have a drug in your hands, the circulation of which should be stopped, then its reception must be stopped.

Perhaps these are all the measures that the average person can take to check the quality of drugs. The next step is for the professionals to step in. A more detailed analysis of drugs is carried out by Roszdravnadzor on the basis of laboratory and visual studies of a batch of drugs. Based on the results of such a check, certain names of medicines may be withdrawn.

What to do if a fake is found?

When identifying a low-quality medicinal product, you should:

1. Contact the pharmacy with a receipt and the packaging of the drug itself for a refund. We recommend that you take with you an information letter about the recall of this series of medicines, which Roszdravnadzor places on its website.
2. If there is no such letter yet, and the drug is clearly fake, then you need to contact the expert services - the Ministry of Health of the region and Roszdravnadzor, which initiate an inspection on suspicion of a counterfeit drug. Upon its completion, the executive authorities will notify the applicant of the results of the audit and the measures taken.

How to avoid buying counterfeit medicine?

Everyone has their own methods of checking the medicine for originality ...

In general, be vigilant. Carefully study the packaging and instructions for use of the drug for errors, uncharacteristic defects, inaccuracies. Check the medicines yourself, and if necessary, contact a specialist. We hope that soon, thanks to the work of legislators, healthcare professionals and the responsibility of the population, counterfeit medicines will completely disappear from the pharmaceutical market.