Suppliers of fake drugs turn to sari-sari stores

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan — Amid the Department of Health’s aggressive campaign against counterfeit drugs in Region 1 (Ilocos region), their suppliers have changed their marketing strategy — turning to sari-sari or neighborhood stores in the barangays, instead of pharmacies and drug stores.

"They no longer carry their stocks in bags. They just carry them in backpacks and they go to the barangays and offer them to sari-sari stores," said Dr. Ray Jacinto, regional chief of the DOH’s Standards Division.

The marketing shift was apparently prompted by the DOH’s successful efforts in going after drug stores selling counterfeit medicines in the region.

Since the DOH launched this campaign last January, Jacinto said they have apprehended 70 drug store owners in Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte, which comprise Region 1.

Before the campaign, he said 80 percent of medicines sold in the region’s 1,500 drug stores (70 percent of them in Pangasinan) were counterfeit.

Although this has been significantly reduced to 40 percent, he said the campaign continues to be a "cat-and-mouse affair," especially now that the suppliers are penetrating the barangays.

Sari-sari stores, according to Jacinto, could potentially provide big business to sellers of fake drugs considering the big number of neighborhood stores.

Under the law, however, sari-sari stores are not allowed to sell drugs, he said.

Jacinto said they expect to file criminal cases against drug stores found selling fake drugs in the second week of August.

He said their next targets are the distributors and manufacturers of these counterfeit medicines, which mainly come from Thailand, Pakistan and India.

"In layman’s terms, peke (fake). Technically, these are medicines (which were) imported and unregistered with the Bureau of Food and Drugs. They are simply smuggled," he said.

Since they started their aggressive campaign, supported by a network of more than 100 texters, mostly legitimate drug store owners and pharmacists, Jacinto said the other regions have launched similar efforts.