Imports fracture confidence, claims Patients Association
Patients are beginning to lose confidence in the integrity and safety of medicines dispensed by community pharmacies because of parallel importing, according to the Patients’ Association (PA).
Roger Odd, a PA trustee, pharmacist and former head of the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society’s practice division, said: “We’ve got a problem
with patients being worried about what they’re getting. The problem
is parallel imports from foreign countries being over-labelled. Some
of them are wrongly labelled and some are expired.”
Such mistakes mean that faulty or counterfeit medicines could be difficult
to recall from the market.
Steven McNamara, of the Irish Patients’ Association, said: “If
they’re making this sort of error, how can we trust them to keep
the records necessary to be able to recall medicines.”
Don Macarthur, general secretary of
the European Association
of Euro-Pharmaceutical Companies, responded: “Parallel
trade in pharmaceuticals is heavily regulated. All products are checked
twice — once by the regulatory authorities and again by the original
manufacturer — before parallel import licences are issued.” |
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