Fake clonazepam. Author: cecmed

The Center for State Control of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices (Cecmed), Cuba’s regulatory body, warns that some medicines widely used by the public, purchased on the informal market, are counterfeit, reports ACN.

Through its website, Cecmed denies the authenticity of foreign drugs such as ketotifen STADA (1 mg), clonazepam in various formulations, neurobion, and USP prednisone tablets in risk reporting.

After analyzing the identification methods of these drugs, Cecmed warns that they are counterfeit, also taking into account that the World Health Organization defines a counterfeit medical product as a product that deliberately and fraudulently misrepresents its authenticity, composition or source.

Therefore, the regulatory authority emphasizes that the quality, safety and efficacy of these drugs cannot be guaranteed, and their use poses an unacceptable risk to public health, so they are not recommended under any circumstances.

Among the most common risks of their consumption is that they are not effective in treating the diseases for which they are used and may cause adverse reactions. They also promote antimicrobial resistance, create mistrust in the effectiveness of vaccines and medicines, as well as in health systems and healthcare workers, increase drug costs for families and health systems, and provide income to criminal networks.

He added that buying drugs online is a hidden danger, as unregulated websites, social media platforms and smartphone apps can also be marketplaces for promoting and selling counterfeit drugs.

In addition, he offered a few tips for spotting counterfeit drugs:

• Some counterfeit medical products look almost exactly like the genuine ones, making them very difficult to spot. However, they can be identified using the following steps:
• Examine the state of the container and the presence of grammatical or spelling errors in it;
• Check the date of manufacture and expiration date, and also make sure that the data on the outer container matches the data on the inner container;
• Make sure the medicine has not changed in appearance, such as color changes, signs of decomposition, or strange smells.
• Consult your doctor, pharmacist or other health care professional as soon as possible if you suspect that the product is not working properly or if you experience an adverse reaction.
• Report suspicious medical devices to the drug regulatory authority (Cecmed).

(According to information from ACN and Granma)

Source: Juventud Rebelde