JILIN: Changchun Customs reportedly tracked down 13 million yuan ($1.9 million) worth of illegal medicines that are smuggled from India through online Daigou stores.
After four months of investigation, customs officers captured 12 suspects smuggling medicines from India and hunted down 303 boxes of cancer drugs including Sofosbuvir and Daklinza in March, according to a report on Changchun customs’ website on May 31.
It said that the suspects sent the medicines from India to China via direct mail by fabricating product names and then selling them to local Chinese at prices 100 to 124 percent higher than the price of medicines sold in India.
Given the slow development in the domestic generic drug sector, medicine smuggling from India is a frequent occurrence, with six trials alone on purchasing foreign medicines online in Shanghai, domestic newspaper Economic Information Daily reported Friday.
According to an expert, many factors may have contributed to the lack of trust Chinese have in domestic generic drugs, including loopholes in manufacturing techniques, quality control and other key production links in domestic drug manufacturers as well as gaps between domestic drug standards and international standards, said the report.
By contrast, generic drugs produced in India are exported to more than 200 countries and regions, of which 60 percent are exported to developed countries like the US, Japan and Europe. Top Indian drug manufacturers usually comply with the US Food and Drug Administration standards, it said.
Hence, more efforts need to be made to develop the domestic generic sector. According to the guidance for deepening medical reform released by China’s State Council in May, a guideline on improving the management of generic drugs will be established by the end of October.
Last April, the China Food and Drug Administration announced that the review and approval of generic drugs would be based on the efficacy of the drug compared to the corresponding brand-name drug, a measure expected to improve the quality of medicine, Caixin reported last year.
