BFAD needs more funds to fight fake drugs

The Coalition against Counterfeit Medicines has urged the government to allocate more funds for the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) to allow the agency to strengthen its campaign against fake drugs.

According to the coalition, the BFAD needs an additional budget so it can implement Republic Act 8203 or the Special Law on Counterfeit Drugs strictly.

"There are not enough BFAD regulatory officers who are needed to efficiently monitor the movement of counterfeit medicines," it said.

The Department of Health (DOH) has estimated that counterfeit medicines now account for 10 percent of the country’s P95-billion pharmaceutical industry.

The World Health Organization itself has stepped up its campaign against fake medicines by coming up with the Rapid Alert System (RAS), the world’s first Web-based system for tracking the activities of counterfeiters. — Sheila Crisostomo