KABUL

Half of all the drugs on the market in Afghanistan are contraband or substandard imports, a study released on Wednesday said.

"Immediate reforms are needed," said Eva Joly, head of Afghanistan’s Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee. “There are over 44 steps to get an import license, which means as many occasions for corruption and bribes,” Jolly told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday. Joly, a member of European Parliament helped set up the committee with the cooperation of the Afghanisatn government. .

There are several hundred companies in Pakistan that produce substandard medicines exclusively for Afghanistan. These companies do not produce products that could be sold in Pakistan or elsewhere, the report said.  

But the trade is lucrative for these companies, because medicine produced in Pakistan is priced in rupees, and the exchange rate with the Afghan currency Afghanis gives them a higher margin. Also, because the Pakistan-produced medicine is sold in boxes labeled in Urdu or English, speakers of Pashto and Dari in Afghanistan cannot read them. Often they bear expired dates for use.

The report termed Afghanistan as a “heaven for pharmaceutical smugglers” who, by exploiting the war and instability in the country, have been dumping all sorts of fake, expired and substandard medicine for decades.

There are around 450 foreign pharmaceutical companies registered with the Ministry of Public Helath, and over 300 of them are said to be Pakistani firms who produce medicine “exclusively for Afghanistan.”

This flood of poor quality drugs causes wider health problems for the Afghan people; in addition to ineffective treatment of illnesses, the substandard drugs often have dangerous side-effects. The poor standard of local drugs and healthcare forces many Afghans who can afford it to travel abroad for medical treatment.

But the report said that the importers are protected by powerful individuals, ministers and members of the parliament who care more for fast profit than anything else.

Afghanistan’s Pharmaceutical Law of 2007 was criticized for relaxing standards, as the country was in dire need of medicine at the time. “There should now be a national list of pharmaceutical companies, and it should be revised every three years since science is changing and evolving,” Eva Joly said.

“We recommend two things, that people responsible for this situation should be investigated and prosecuted, and that we should change the rules to allow good quality medicines to be imported,” Eva Joly concluded.

Another member of the committee, Afghan Muhammad Yasin Usmani, said that the laboratories at the borders which test drugs were often corrupt. The laboratory operators often manipulate the tests for medicines in exchange for bribes.

www.aa.com.tr/en