Long Heng: Police Authorities burns down 19 tons of expired medicines

Police Authorities burns down 19 tons of expired medicines




Cambodian Police Authorities on August 9 fired down 19 tons of fake, expired and illegal medicine which confiscated recently in a move to strengthen the law enforcement of medicine management of health ministry and join to prevent local people’s health from fake medicines.



These medicines are expired, fake and illegal medicines in total 19 tons with 280 kg and composed of 25 kinds of medicines which imported illegally from foreign countries. And these fake medicines will destroy our local people’s health if they buy for treatment of illness. Therefore we destroyed them today,” Seang Bun Leang, police chief combating economic crimes said in the ceremony of destroying expired medicines at laboratory of waste drug and it was participated from the court’s prosecutors, senior officials of health ministry and stakeholders as witness of destroying the medicines after confiscating.



“We has cooperated with competent authorities and reach to arrest the criminal and confiscated these drugs from illegally importing from regional countries,” Bun Leang said, adding that we have cracked down timely on the illegal medicines that could affect our local people’s health and these medicine do not have quality and fake drugs. He added that the police arrested a criminal who is the mastermind of importing these illegal and fake medicines and the court already jailed that man.



“We have taken 7 months to investigate and reach to arrest these fake medicines and the criminal, he said, adding that even though he did not reveal the price of the fake medicines if it was sold to local markets.



He also appealed local medicine dealers to import legal drugs and do it by law, and follow the law of health ministry. Pharmacist should join to care our local people’s health but sometimes the medicine sellers are careless with local people’s health and the focused on money earnings. This is not the first time that our police authorities have confiscated these kinds of the medicines,” Bun Leang said.



Recently our police also confiscated the 500 boxes illegal cosmetics products and fake make-up which transported illegally. “All those products are cosmetics products branded name in USA and South Korea but actually they all are fake products,” Bun Leng said. He added that those products had not granted the permission licensing from health ministry and it could damage local people’s health, face and skin complex if they used them,” he added.

In July 2010, France provided 123, 5 00 Euro to fight against illegal and fake medicines in Cambodia and the project is starting to implement to investigate the fake and expired medicine in contribution of seeking dangers and where the medicine came from, help training the experts.



The signing ceremony of one of two conventions was inked at Cambodia ’s foreign ministry between H.E. Sun Saphoeun, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and H.E. Jean-François Desmazières, Ambassador of France in Cambodia . Those fake medicine has affected health’s local people and others and the project is under the framework of Mekong river Cooperation including Vietnam , Laos and Cambodia in combating illegal and fake drugs in region,” Jean said at that time.

The fund will be used to train experts, promote law enforcement, and inspired the inter-ministry,’ he noted. Cambodia is working with other countries to fight against illegal and fake drugs. Cambodia is one of country working hard in relating with fake malaria drug that is core of treatment because those malaria drugs are accustomed with medicine. Infected people of malaria are not cured properly because the medicine is weaker with disease after people used expired, fake medicine in treatment.

Cambodian government and partners like the WHO have spent millions of dollars tackling the problem in an area like Pailin in fighting malaria and fake medicines.

###