Alert against fake drug against hepatitis C



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The legal director of Gilead Sciences Mexico laboratory, Ricardo Valdez, warned that counterfeit copies of Epclusa are circulating in Mexico, an innovative drug to cure and cure chronic hepatitis C.

In an interview, he acknowledged that up to now it is unclear how much He explained that five Sinaloa patients presented themselves to the Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks (Cofepris), which discovered that treatment apocryphal, who opened a line of investigation for crimes to health.

With this line of investigation is aimed at determining who or who introduced the wrong treatment, from where it comes from and the exact place where it was done; how many bottles actually circulate in the country and in which states; also on a possible complicity of the medical authorities to sell them to sick patients at similar prices (costs between 1.5 to 2.4 million pesos per infected person, and the tablets are taken for 8 or 12 weeks).

It is also planned to clarify whether were placed in pharmacies and how they were delivered to patients, possibly through unauthorized distributors who operate in the country and possibly use the Internet.

A possible complicity of the customs authorities is not excluded either. , with which, he assured, they maintain a close communication to avoid, precisely, the entry of fake medicines from India, Russia, China, essentially

At the moment, the legal representative was abundant because of the seriousness of the problem. launched a health alert from Friday to identify more cases of patients who acquired these life-threatening false treatments.

monitoring possible sequelae found three of the five patients detected, since two did not consume it when they reported the irregularities detected in the box; instead, they received the innovative treatment approved by the health authorities.

Cofepris's investigations reported that apocryphal treatment, provided up to now, does not have the "appropriate levels of sofosbuvir and velpatasvir to complete an effective treatment" against this virus that affects about 1 million of Mexicans, 600,000 of whom know that they have the disease.

The innovative treatment Epclusa, he added, began to be marketed in the country and around the world early this year and the patent expires until the year 2032.

"This is not a generic product, but a counterfeit product that does not respect the safety measures, the efficiency and safety of patients, some of whom also suffer from HIV / AIDS", He pointed out in an interview.

Counterfeit tablets were detected in Sinaloa by lot number 19SPFD201, with expiry date 10/2019, in bottles of 400/1 00 milligrams These are tablets whose size is totally different from l & # 39; original.

In addition, pirated copies violate health and labeling standards, that is, instead of containing in the bottle, box and instructions written in German, in English or simply in white, they lack instructions.

The company's legal representative also pointed out that the original treatment was exclusively distributed by Maypo Pharmaceuticals in Mexico.

"Gilead Sciences is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the research, development and commercialization of innovative therapies in unmet medical fields," he said after highlighting the severity of apocryphal flasks.

] Cofepris states that the false treatment can be identified by the content, active substances with a different dosage, expiry dates manipulated or altered, errors in the imp. The head of the Commission d. State for protection against the health risks of Sinaloa (Coepriss), Jorge Alan Urbina Vidales, said that in Sinaloa, the alert was given on the basis of citizen complaints and that part of the The purpose of the investigation was to exclude the participation of the Canadian production company Patheon Inc., which does not recognize the distribution or manufacture of the product, so that its origin is still unknown.

Together with Gilead Global, state and federal inspectors, track down fake products in pharmacies and on the Internet

The authorities are confident that they will stop the illegal product since from 2010 to 2017 they seized 405 tons of illegal drugs from China, India, Russia

According to reports of the World Health Organization, this type of fake drugs has become a dangerous activity for criminals. Despite the fact that they cause about 700,000 deaths a year due to adverse effects or the lack of healing properties.

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