PHILIPSBURG--The Inspectorate of Public Health, Social Development and Labour VSA has confiscated ten boxes of counterfeit Viagra 100mg from a store on Back Street, and is cautioning consumers to purchase their medicine only from licensed pharmacies in the country.
Inspector General Dr. Earl Best said on Tuesday the Pharmaceutical Inspectorate found the 10 boxes of Viagra 100mg for sale in an establishment on Back Street on September 8. As the establishment was not licensed to dispense medicine, all the Viagra was confiscated. “Upon further review these boxes were suspected to be counterfeit,” Best said.
A sample of the product was sent to manufacturer Pfizer in the United States for an authenticity evaluation. The authenticity evaluation report, which was received from Pfizer on October 13, states that the packaging material and the composition of the tablets are distinctly different from the authentic Viagra manufactured by Pfizer. “It follows from the report that the purported “Viagra 100mg” tablets found in St. Maarten have been determined to consist of counterfeit drug product packaging and counterfeit drug product tablets,” Best said.
He said an official report of the findings will be forwarded to the Prosecutor’s Office for further handling.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), medicines that are deliberately and fraudulently mislabelled regarding their identity or source are called counterfeit medicines or counterfeit drugs. Their quality is unpredictable as they may contain the wrong amount of active ingredients, wrong ingredients or no active ingredients at all. They are manufactured in clandestine laboratories with no possibility of control. The use of these medicines poses a threat to a person’s health.
Best urged the public to only purchase medicines from any of the 12 licensed pharmacies on the island, and to contact the Inspectorate if they encounter medicines for sale outside of the regulated supply chain.
