How to check the authenticity of medicines. Medicines

Counterfeit drugs in best case scenario They simply won’t bring any benefit; at worst, they can cause irreparable harm to health, even death. Medicines in pharmacies are checked for quality by the relevant regulatory authorities, but they are only able to cover about 20% of medicines. We will tell you in our article how to buy medicine at a pharmacy without counterfeiting.

Types of counterfeit medicines

There are 4 main types of counterfeit drugs in our pharmacies:

“Dummy” - drugs that do not contain the substances specified in the instructions. Usually chalk, flour, starch, and sugar are used instead. In principle, pacifiers are safe, but only until recovery depends on their use;

medicines in which more expensive and effective ingredients are replaced with less effective cheap analogues. The result from using such drugs is several times lower than expected;

with reduced dosage active ingredients. Positive effect from their use is scanty;

manufactured in violation of technology. The composition and dosage of such medicines are kept within normal limits, but the quality is quite poor due to non-compliance with the production regime. Such drugs may have more short term storage than indicated on the package, or have a weak effect.

Another case of “wrong” drugs that cannot be classified as counterfeit, but from which people suffer, is drug substitution. For example, instead of pills that lower blood pressure, the blister may contain pills that increase it.

For more information about counterfeit medicines, watch the video:

What drugs are counterfeited most often?

In most cases, drugs are counterfeited:

whose value is in price range from $4 to $35. There is no point in making very cheap ones, since their production simply may not pay off, and producing counterfeits of expensive drugs is unprofitable, since consumer demand for them is low;

actively advertised. Advertising stimulates demand and guarantees high levels of sales and profits.

In most cases, the following are fake medicines in pharmacies:

Methods for identifying counterfeit drugs

Alas, there is no method that would allow us to select original pharmaceutical products and weed out counterfeit products with 100% probability. However, there are a number of rules, compliance with which will significantly reduce the chances of buying fake medicines in pharmacies.

According to the law, in Ukraine and the Russian Federation medications cannot be returned. However, you can return a low-quality medicine, but you will have to provide an expert opinion proving that you were sold a counterfeit medicine. In Ukraine laboratory research will have to be done at your own expense, and in Russia such a service is provided only legal entities. So it is unlikely that you will be able to defend your right. Therefore, it is better to try to prevent this by checking medications in pharmacies before purchasing.

True, he does not assume that this medicine will be genuine, but will only reveal an obvious fake. What percentage of counterfeit drugs is present on Russian market pharmaceuticals is difficult to say. Around the world, tens of billions of dollars are circulating on the counterfeit market, and up to 200 thousand people die from the action or inaction of counterfeit goods. It is believed that counterfeiting drugs is an extremely profitable illegal business. It is best to shop in places where there are special stands with “Consumer Information” about counterfeit and rejected medicines.

Pharmacies are held criminally liable for selling counterfeit products, so they are interested in the quality of the products offered.

Counterfeiters know that people do not always carefully study the packaging, and therefore sometimes do not attach importance to its careful execution.

For each medicine, the seller must have a quality certificate and a passport of analysis. After the New Year holidays, the Ministry of Health announced an auction for the development of an application for scanning and processing barcode data on medicine packaging. Each package of the medicine contains a sticker with protective strip. Quality.RF is a leading source of information on the quality of medicines in the Russian Federation.

Purchase medical supplies Only needed in pharmacies, and large ones at that.

Buying tablets, solutions and even vitamins in dubious establishments (stalls, pharmacy kiosks in the subway, transitions and online services), you initially risk your health.

Mandatory drug labeling is a reality effective method fight against scammers.

Appearance of the drug.

The drug labeling must include the necessary information.

The “RLS - Encyclopedia of Medicines” has a section “Medicine Identifier” containing high-quality photographs dosage forms and packaging of drugs that have a risk of counterfeiting.

Do not buy drugs that are not prescribed to you by a doctor you trust.

Each unit of product was assigned a unique code that allows the product to be identified, and it was described on the packaging how to verify the authenticity. After its appearance, you can download the application of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation to check and obtain information about medications using a barcode from the application store, or from the website of the Ministry itself. It should work on iOS and Android platforms. Let us remind you that smartphone applications that work as a barcode scanner have existed for a long time. With their help, you can also find information on the Internet about the product you are interested in.

Using this application, the user will be able to scan the barcode of the medicine, and then receive it full description, properties, purpose, i.e. a kind of electronic instruction.

The Ministry has long had a database of barcodes for identifying medicines.

Let me share my experience: the products manufactured by our company were also counterfeited, but we found next solution. The maximum contract value is 3 million rubles. However, I would like to question the effectiveness of determining the authenticity of a medicine using this application. For example, immediately after scanning a barcode, information about the medicine will appear on the screen, and not just a bunch of links on the Internet.

Obviously, a single database will have a number of advantages over a “dump” of sites with information about a particular medicine.

Also, according to the statement of the deputy director of the department information technologies and communications of the Ministry of Health of Roman Safronov, the user of the application will be able to determine the authenticity of the medicine.

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 of expensive drugs) are also not counterfeited. 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 manufacturers of expensive medicines, caring about their reputation, make packaging from high-quality material. 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. It is enough to enter the name of the medical product and its series into the service, and the information system will automatically check the status of the product in a few minutes, checking it against 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.

It is well known that various medications can not only help people, but also be fatal. hazardous elements for life. The fact is that certain fraudulent organizations are engaged in the production of drugs from the wrong elements, which leads to the creation of drugs that not only will not be effective, but may even lead to fatal outcome. Counterfeiting of medicines is a criminal offense, but the profit that organizations receive for this work is very high, so illegal medicines continue to enter the market. That is why the government is trying to control this area of activity in order to exclude the possibility of hazardous substances entering the market.

Checking medications for authenticity

Thanks to control, it was possible to create a special method by which drugs can be checked for authenticity. Absolutely anyone can carry out the verification, since this process is carried out in online mode. To do this, you just need to have access to the Internet and also look at the batch number of the purchased drug. The fact is that the state has created an entire information service with a huge amount information and data that quickly recognizes barcodes various medications, and as a result you can verify whether they are genuine or fake.

Checking medications for authenticity by series online assumes that you will need to enter the required form barcode on the website, after which the following information will be received:

type of medicine;
its authenticity.

If the medicine is counterfeit, then relevant information is provided.

Unique innovations

Very soon it will be possible to use not only the site, since it is planned to launch special application for various mobile devices, which will easily recognize barcodes, after which it will be possible to quickly obtain reliable and up-to-date information about each medicine. Since today almost every person has various modern phones, a large number of people will use this program. It is with the help of the program that medications will be checked online, and this can be done directly at the pharmacy or other place where the drug is purchased.

In the application, you can not only make sure that the medicine is correct and genuine, but it will also provide information on how to use it. If a counterfeit is detected, the application will indicate that the medicine has been withdrawn from trade or is not in the database at all. In this case, you will need to contact the seller in order to obtain all permits for the sale of this medicine.

How else can you identify a counterfeit medicine?

Not all people have the opportunity to use mobile applications or go online to enter data from a drug to verify its authenticity. In this case, you need to know some rules, following which you can quickly and easily identify a fake. These include:

It is important to take a good look at the packaging of the medicine, which should be in good condition, and at the same time, no dents, sloppiness or other problems are allowed, and all surfaces must be glossy;
the paint on the packaging and on the medicine itself must be of high quality, and to check, you can try scratching it with your fingernail, because if it comes off easily, then we can talk about a low-quality medicine;
the inscriptions should not contain errors;
the expiration date must be clearly visible and understandable, and its absence is grounds for refusing to purchase this medicinal product;
the reason for doubt is the lack of information about the country of origin and the company that produces the drug;
if tablets are purchased, they must be smooth and intact, and their edges must be smooth and without any problems;
V mandatory An official and genuine medicinal product must be accompanied by instructions for use, in Russian.

If there is even one doubt about the authenticity and quality of the medicine, then you should refuse to purchase it, since this is a very important decision. Low-quality items that are fakes may not only not bring the desired treatment result, but also simply harm human health.

Thus, checking drugs for authenticity by series online is currently very popular, and it can be done using the website, and soon through a special mobile app, however, it is additionally recommended to follow certain advice when examining the drug, so as not to purchase a counterfeit.

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What do you need to know?

There is a widespread belief among consumers that medicines are counterfeited, even in pharmacies. It is difficult for a person to verify the authenticity, but at the same time he wants to buy only real, quality drugs, because it concerns the health of him and his loved ones. In order not to purchase counterfeit medicine, you need to know a few simple rules capable of helping every consumer.

The work of every pharmacy is, first and foremost, a business. His main goal is to obtain maximum profits from consumers. In this type of business there is high competition, which is constantly growing. As a result of high competition, there is a decline in income.

Some pharmacy points turned out to be uncompetitive and stopped working. But not all pharmacies were closed amid high competition; many continued to operate without caring about the welfare of consumers.

This picture gives rise to unscrupulous pharmacists to resort to deception. As a result, they began selling counterfeit medicines. In such a situation, people suffer. Any drugs, both medium-priced and expensive, can be counterfeited, which is especially scary. Is it true expensive medicines pharmacists do not dare to counterfeit, since there is little income from such drugs.

if you accept expensive drugs, then you need to be sure of their authenticity. After all, in addition to wasting money, you can only harm your health when taking such medications. What do you need to know to check the authenticity of drugs purchased at a pharmacy?

Accurate verification data

If you have any doubts about the quality of the purchased pharmacological drugs, then first of all you can check the quality of medicines by using the services of a supervisory authority. Specialists will be able to conduct an assessment and, after completing the examination, will provide documentation on the conformity of the product. If after the study you were given a negative result, you can contact the Consumer Protection Committee. Moreover, every buyer who comes across a counterfeit medicine has every right make demands not only for damages, but also for payment of moral damages.

In order to be sure that the authenticity of the medicine is at top level, drugs should be purchased only in municipal pharmacies, avoiding all kinds of dubious pharmacies. If you purchase medications through online pharmacies, then it is better to purchase drugs from time-tested, good places, for example, paniapteka.ua.

If you buy drugs at a pharmacy, it is recommended to pay attention to a few simple points. You should not pay for goods at the pharmacy if you notice the following:

You noticed grammatical or spelling errors in the annotation text accompanying the drug;
Having examined the packaging, you did not find on it: “Best before...”;
There is no gloss on the packaging that comes with the drug;
The drug does not have its own passport and quality certificate;
The manufacturer, his phone number and address could not be found on the packaging.

Checking the medicine at home

Are you thinking about checking the authenticity? medications Is it possible only by submitting them for examination? In fact, this is not so; today there is a simple way available to everyone that allows them to check the authenticity of purchased tablets at home. In each annotation attached to the drug, the time of its absorption is indicated. In order to verify the authenticity of this fact, it is recommended to place one of the tablets in a container of water and note the time.

If the medicine turns out to be genuine, then it should dissolve without a residue within the period of time that was indicated in the instructions attached to it. If the tablet does not have time to dissolve completely or leaves a residue behind, this indicates that this is a fake.

Also, before purchasing a medicine at a pharmacy, you must compare the information in the certificate with the data on the packaging. This simple action will allow the consumer to know what exactly he is going to buy.

You need to be extremely careful when purchasing expensive medications, because today you can easily come across a counterfeit. You should not buy medicines second-hand or in dubious places, because it is extremely difficult to determine their quality by eye. Take care of your health, only in municipal pharmacies in the city and carefully study the information on the packaging. Don't skimp on your health!