The fakes are becoming extremely difficult to spot even by experts...

More worrying news regarding the production of fake and illegal drugs has come to the Ukmedix Newsroom. It seems that now Vietnam is plagued by fake versions of the weight loss drug Reductil. What is even more disturbing is that the fake medications are finding their way directly into the legitimate drugs supply chain and thus they are being found in hospitals and health centres. It is expected that if you buy medication on the street or in shady looking shops that there is a good chance that they will be fake but one expects that if you get a prescription from a hospital that it should be safe and the genuine product. Increasingly in the Far East this is not the case and the fakes are becoming extremely difficult to spot even by experts and representatives of the drug companies who make them.

In Vietnam the Ministry of Health has admitted that the problem is growing and that they have been checking hospitals and health centres and are finding more and more fakes. The most commonly fakes drugs are erectile dysfunction drugs but these are mainly sold online or in the street. Weight loss drugs come a close second for people selling fake drugs and the criminals who make them try to get them into the legitimate supply chain so that they reduce their chances of being caught.

The fake Reductil medications that we have heard about at Ukmedix News often contain the active ingredient sibutramine that acts as an appetite suppressant. The problem is that fake drug manufacturers do not make the drug to the same high standards that are required by law in all countries and therefore there is a risk that the chemical will not be distributed evenly in each pill and this can mean that when taking a pill you either take too much or too little of the compound. If for example you were to take too much sibutramine you could put yourself in serious danger and cause damage to your heart as well as make your blood pressure rise dangerously.

The Vietnamese government has had some successes with busting criminal gangs who make these drugs most notably in 2006 when a large operation was shut down that involved a web of contacts in hospitals in Hanoi and other parts of Vietnam.