Thailand Agencies Join Forces to Combat Fake Drugs

Thailand recently launched a government-wide effort to fight the counterfeit drug trade in the country.

Nine government agencies recently signed a memorandum of understanding to join together to fight the trade of fake drugs, according to The Nation.

These agencies are the Customs Department, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Special Investigation, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, Royal Thai Police, Information and Communications Technology Ministry, Central Institute of Forensic Science, Office of the Attorney-General for Intellectual Property and International Trade, and the Commerce Ministry’s Intellectual Property Department.

Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot said that counterfeit drugs are detrimental to the health of consumers. He also said that sharing information amongst the agencies will help solve the problem of fake drugs, reports the news source.

“These fake products have caused more damage than we can estimate because the agencies working on this do not share information enough,” Alongkorn said.

The news provider reports that last year Thailand’s government seized approximately 145,000 tablets of counterfeit drugs.

In addition to working together to reduce the amount of phony medicines in the country, the agencies said they will work to inform the public about the dangers of counterfeit drugs.