Is it possible and where to check for counterfeit medicine? Checking medications for authenticity using a series online - myth or reality? How to check the authenticity of a medicine by series and number

Several years ago, information spread across news portals that it had become possible official verification of medicines for authenticity according to the series online. The new information service was supposed to highest speed recognize drug barcodes. Using these barcodes, the program would determine the type of drug and indicate whether it is genuine, and search the database of withdrawn and rejected drugs. The goal of the program was to recognize counterfeits when pharmaceutical organizations purchase medicinal products, and to verify their authenticity by customers in a pharmacy or at home. But on this moment This service does not work yet.

The Ministry of Health plans to release a special mobile app to scan barcodes and display information about them. Verifying the authenticity of a medicine is the main purpose of the application. It will contain information about the drug, including directions for use. If it turns out that the medicine is withdrawn from circulation, in the “status” column you can look at the corresponding letter from Roskomnadzor, on the basis of which the medicine was withdrawn. Medicines are withdrawn from circulation if they are of poor quality, the quality is questioned, the fact of falsification is revealed, or there is no registration.

How to determine that a medicine is counterfeit

You need to pay attention to the packaging. It should not be wrinkled, shabby, or sloppy. The surface should be glossy, not rubbed. If the drug is genuine, then the paint on the packaging cannot be rubbed off by touching your fingers.
The title and other inscriptions must not contain grammatical errors
The country of origin is not indicated, this is a reason for doubt
Expiration date not specified
Inside the package there should be instructions for using the medicine.
The instructions for the drug are written in Russian
The tablet crumbles, there are jagged edges- most likely it is of poor quality

If the quality of the medicine is in doubt, it is necessary to examine the packaging. A fake cannot completely copy the original. An original is a brightly and clearly printed picture, a fake is a copied image, it cannot completely, down to the smallest detail, repeat it. The letters and lines will not be identical. If you have any doubts, you can contact the pharmacist at the pharmacy where you purchased the medicine. You can ask to see documents (quality certificate) for this drug.

After the launch of the online project of the Ministry of Health, verification of the authenticity of drugs by series will make it easier for both purchasers and buyers of medical drugs to determine the authenticity medicines. In order for the program to scan the unique code, you need to take a photo of it. After which it will check the authenticity of prohibited medications in the database and give the result.

Counterfeiting of medicines is a serious problem both in our country and in the world. It poses a threat to the life and health of a large number of people. Buyers inattentively examine the packaging and take the medicine. The drug may not only have no effect, but also have harmful influence on human health. For this purpose, a project is being developed so that checking a medicine by series online will be available to any buyer who has mobile phone with the ability to install applications. After the application is released, it will be connected to the official database of medicines of the Ministry of Health and Roszdravnadzor.

What devices will the program work on?

The application will be available for use on smartphones running iOS and Android platforms. This program will be posted on the website of the Ministry of Health and in well-known application stores. It can be downloaded and installed for free. Online drug testing helps combat counterfeit medicines in Russia pharmaceutical market. Careful control of the distribution of non-conforming products is expected official standards medicines.

According to WHO, the majority of counterfeits are antibiotics, hormonal, antifungal agents and analgesics. The quality of counterfeits does not correspond to the original, since one medicine can be replaced by another, and the indicated substances may not be present in the composition. Expired medications may be sold as active ones.

Release of the official service for reading information on barcodes for checking medications will make life easier for both pharmaceutical companies and ordinary consumers. We just have to wait until development is completed.

The pharmaceutical market is growing very rapidly, and a large number of new drugs that do not always correspond to the declared composition may be of poor quality or even fake. Therefore, it would be useful to know how to check the authenticity of a medicine so as not to pay money for simple chalk or glucose.

Signs of a counterfeit drug

A counterfeit will always have differences from the original, so it can be recognized by the following indicators:

the cost of the drug differs sharply from average price in the city, is too low;
the packaging is made of thin cardboard, the colors and inscriptions are pale, unclear, possibly blurry;
barcode, series and number are difficult to read, blurred in several places;
the instructions look more like a photocopy than a printed sheet;
It is worth paying attention not only to the quality of printing of the recommendation, but also to how it is folded: in a fake, the instructions may be located separately from the drug, but in a genuine product, the bottle or plates with tablets divide it clearly in half;
the series, release date, expiration date on the packaging and the drug do not completely match or differ in one number.

Methods for verifying the authenticity of a medicine

If it is in doubt whether it has at least one of the listed signs, then it is worth knowing how to check the authenticity of the medicine, what methods exist for this. Whether the remedy is real or not can be determined by the following methods:

Ask the pharmacist for the relevant product, delivery note and declaration for it. Using these documents on the Roszdravnadzor website you can check whether the this drug in system.
By barcode - one of effective ways determination of counterfeit is made by arithmetic addition of all digits, the sum of which must coincide with the control number.
By series, number and name of the drug through the portal "quality.rf" or the website of Roszdravnadzor.

How to check the authenticity of a medicine using a barcode

Any registered and legally produced product has a special barcode, which consists of a set of numbers. This labeling of products allows you to know the authenticity of the drug. Each number encrypts data about the country of origin, enterprise, product, its properties, color, size, the last number is a control number, it allows you to check the originality of the medicine.

To calculate the check digit, the following arithmetic calculations must be made:

first add up all the numbers in even positions, i.e. 2, 4 and so on;
the resulting amount from the first point must be multiplied by 3;
then add up the numbers in odd places: 1, 3, 5, etc., except for the control number;
now it is necessary to summarize the data obtained in points 2 and 3, and discard the tens from this sum;
the number that was obtained in point 5 is subtracted from 10; the final result must coincide with the control number.

For a better understanding of how to check the authenticity of a medicine using a barcode, you can give the following example of calculations with code 4606782066911:

6 + 6 + 8 + 0 + 6 + 1 = 27;
27 x 3 = 81;
4 + 0 + 7 + 2 + 6 + 9 = 28;
81 + 28 = 109;
10 - 9 = 1.

Based on these calculations, the control and final numbers coincide and equal 1, therefore, the product is genuine.

The discrepancy between the data obtained indicates that the product was produced illegally and is counterfeit.

How to check the authenticity of a medicine by series and number

Another way to check a drug is to check its basic data: name, series and number. Roszdravnadzor provides the public with the opportunity to control the authenticity of medicines through their website, where information is published on inspections of preclinical and clinical trials of drugs, as well as information on the results of these activities.

In addition, you can check the medicine through the portal "quality.rf", where there is all the necessary information related to the drugs: about manufacturers, important news about government proposals and decisions in the field of medicine, about the quality of products presented on the Russian pharmaceutical market.

The portal "quality.rf" has a section that helps answer the question of how to check the authenticity of a medicine by series online. To do this, you need to go to the “Quality Control” catalog and enter the necessary data, after which a sign will appear with a decision to authorize or prohibit the release of the drug.

How not to buy a counterfeit?

To avoid purchasing a fake, you must consider the following recommendations:

buy medicines only in pharmacy chain, do not take drugs by hand, from distributors, in small kiosks or stalls, on the Internet;
You should not purchase products without a doctor’s prescription, on the advice of a pharmacist;
It is recommended to ask the pharmacist for a quality certificate, compare the information indicated in it with that contained on the drug packaging;
It is better to refrain from buying an advertised product, as there are Great chance fall for a fake.

Where to go if you discover a counterfeit?

When considering the question of how to check the authenticity of a medicine, it is necessary to tell where to go if the purchased drug is in doubt, it has some bright pronounced signs fakes, the product has not passed any of the methods of identifying the original. In this case, the medicine must be subjected to laboratory research who can confirm or refute the falsification.

There are scientific centers in almost all regions of Russia, the location of which can be found on the Roszdravnadzor website. To do this, you need to go to the “Medicines” catalog, select the “Quality Control of Medicines” section, where in the “Reference Information” subsection all accredited laboratories operating in the Russian Federation are indicated.

To clarify the conditions of the examination, it is recommended to contact the required laboratory. In addition, it is necessary to bring information about the counterfeit medicine to the attention of the territorial body of Roszdravnadzor.

Thus, if you detect any signs of counterfeiting, it is important to know how to check the authenticity of the medicine by series, number, barcode, and also where to go if the medicine has not passed the originality test.

Currently, not a single person can do without medicine: be it a child or adult population, everyone at some time has to, due to circumstances, take medication.

IN Lately The opinion about the counterfeiting of pharmaceutical products has spread massively, and therefore the population increasingly begins to have doubts about their authenticity.

The operation of any pharmacy is a business and the only goal is to make large profits. Competition in this business has increased significantly, but income, on the contrary, has fallen.

Most pharmacies became uncompetitive and ceased operations.

This picture has given unscrupulous pharmacists a reason to resort to deception and sell counterfeit medicine. Those who suffer the most here are those who chronic diseases and it is necessary to take the medicine daily, and it is expensive, which is counterfeited and passed off as natural. I would like to emphasize that cheap medicines cannot be counterfeited, as they produce little profit.

Accurate test result

If you have doubts about the quality of the purchased medicine, you must use the services of a supervisory authority.

Specialists will make an assessment and, after the examination, provide a document confirming the conformity of the product. If you receive a negative result, contact the Consumer Rights Protection Committee. Moreover, you have every right file claims for damages and payment for moral damages.

In order to protect yourself, you need to buy medicine only in municipal pharmacies, bypassing various dubious pharmacies. If you buy medications through online pharmacies, it is better to turn to good and time-tested ones, for example, paniapteka.ua.

Before paying for the goods, you need to pay attention to the following points:

If there are grammatical errors in the annotation text;

It doesn’t say “best before...” on the packaging;

Not glossy packaging;

The manufacturer, his address and telephone number are not marked on the packaging;

There is no certificate or quality certificate.

A home way to check whether a medicine is fake or not

In fact, there is a very simple and accessible way for everyone to check pills. The annotation states the absorption time of the medicine. To do this, you need to place the tablet in water and record the time. The tablet should melt without a trace within the time specified in the instructions. If the tablet does not completely dissolve and a sediment remains, then it is obvious that it is a fake.

Before purchasing a medicine, be sure to compare the information on the certificate with the information on the packaging and it will become clear to you what you are buying.

It's a shame to overpay for a fake that was sold to you as branded expensive thing. But the purchase of “illegal” medicines and treatment with counterfeit medicines not only undermines the family budget, but also causes irreparable harm to the health of the sick person. Content counterfeit drugs may be useless or harmful to him. More than 10% of medicines on sale today are manufactured in clandestine enterprises and have nothing in common in composition with the original products.

It is not profitable to counterfeit a cheap one

By purchasing inexpensive domestic medicine in a pharmacy, there is no doubt about its composition. No one will bother with the underground production of analgin, iodine, calcium gluconate and furatsilin.

The purpose of any fraud is to obtain light large illegal income. However, by imitating a cheap cough syrup or aspirin, you will not get much gain. But a drug that costs equal to the subsistence level or more is worth checking for authenticity.

So-called generics (inexpensive legal and proven analogues) are also not counterfeited. expensive drugs). Such legal “doubles” do not indicate which medicine they are an analogue of. They are easy to distinguish from counterfeits: the company name will not be indicated on the packaging or in the annotation, but only the current active substances will be noted.

Package

Advice. Don't throw away old boxes and jars of expensive medicines. Sometimes, to find out the truth, it is enough to compare the quality of the inscriptions and drawings on the products offered.

The packaging must indicate the country of origin and expiration date.
If there are errors and typos in the texts on the packaging or in the instructions, this indicates falsification.
It is mandatory to have instructions for use in Russian.
Authenticity is evidenced by a clear font that is not erased or blurred by moisture and drawings of the same quality.
The packaging must contain numbers corresponding to the serial number of the product. The exact same number must be included in the accompanying certificate.
For this product, it is mandatory to have embossing, inscriptions of the drug name and expiration date on blisters with tablets and capsules.

Well-known manufacturing companies expensive medicine Taking care of their reputation, they make packaging from quality materials. Their product will never contain:

dented, opened capsules;
chipped crooked ampoules;
uneven, crumbled tablets and pills.

Help from Roszdravnadzor

To dispel any remaining doubts about the authenticity of the medicine, you can take it to the nearest branch of Roszdravnadzor and write an application for a quality examination. Careful testing is done in the laboratory chemical analysis drug and its compliance with the declared composition is determined.

You can also find out the authenticity of the medicine by going online to the Roszdravnadzor website on the Internet. Just enter the name in the service medical product, its series, and the information system will automatically check the status of the product in a few minutes, checking it with the list of those withdrawn from the retail chain and rejected in Russia.

Advice. Do not purchase medicines from dealers, medical workers, from individuals and in beauty salons. The most reliable place to trade certified medicines is state pharmacies.