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Dubai: Dubai Customs has confiscated the largest quantity of counterfeit drugs worth Dh5 million from a shipment from Mauritius.
Around 555,000 pills, usually prescribed for heart attack or stroke-prone patients, containing traces of white cement were seized from two containers.
The counterfeit drugs were of Plavix tablets made by French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis. Plavix is an anticoagulation drug which liquefies the blood and reduces the risk of heart attacks.
According to Jean Pierre Braganti, regional security correspondent for Sanofi-Aventis, counterfeit drugs make up between 10 and 15 per cent of medicine currently on the global market.
"For too long we have underestimated this trade which has now become industrialised. All sorts of counterfeit drugs are on the market and some have weak medicinal benefits while others have none," said Braganti.
He said counterfeit drugs usually contain impure or toxic materials which are likely to worsen health. "Counterfeit drugs can kill or have mediocre medicinal outcome. It takes about 10 years to develop a drug which explains the influx of fake drugs sold for very cheap," he said.
"Counterfeit drugs make up a large market that can fund other businesses. There is a new phenomenon of sales on the internet and we have seen large examples of this — buyers are not aware and are caught out," said Braganti.
Ahmad Butti Ahmad, Director-General of Dubai Customs, said laboratory tests confirmed that the confiscated medicines were counterfeit. However, the packaging was near identical to the authentic drug.
Details unknown
"You cannot tell by looking at the boxes that this is fake and we had to test it to tell if it was genuine or fake and found white cement in the pills. This is extremely dangerous due to the fact that it would have created confusion among consumers," he said. Each box of medicine costs Dh292 on the market, he said.
The drugs were found in two containers and the importers have been taken to court. The nationality or the number of people arrested remains unknown.
The drug shipment consisted of 20,000 boxes and is considered the largest seizure in the region.
French Ambassador to the UAE Patrice Paoli said the efforts of Dubai Customs would help protecting and securing society from Intellectual Property Rights infringements.
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