ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A medicine that was banned from markets in the Kurdistan Region due to the possibility of counterfeited batches is still being sold online and in markets despite doctors having warned of serious side effects.
A doctor warned on Tuesday that the Montalin drug, a herb-based drug taken to relieve discomfort and pain in rheumatism, painful joints, stiff muscles, cramps and tired legs, has been in the Kurdistan Region since around 2017.
It is believed to have begun entering the Region from Saudi Arabia in 2017, Aram Rostam, an advisor to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Ministry of Health and a Rheumatologist told Rudaw on Tuesday, adding that he had warned the medicine control agency at the time. “But later, and recently, the medicine spread back into the market again in all the pharmacies in the Kurdistan Region,” the doctor said.
“This medicine is made in Indonesia from five herbs. Only one batch, from March 17 (2021) in the Kurdistan Region was inspected and passed the tests, and only that batch. The amount was 7,700 packets, meaning the medicine that was imported in Kurdistan before that is considered illegal,” added Rostam.
Doctors said the medicine is not natural and is a mix of painkillers. “When patients use it they feel calmer, but this has long-term side effects on the stomach, liver, kidney and high blood pressure,” he said.
Rostam warned that “its continuous use will harm people,” adding that there have been reported cases from other doctors of patients dying from its use and imploring people to “keep away” from “any medicine that does not have a sticker”.
The stickers are from the Ministry of Health’s Kurdistan Medical Control Agency (KMCA), a medicine registration and licensing body in the Kurdistan Region. According to the medical professional, without a sticker, “You shouldn’t use it whatsoever.”
“Even though the Montalin drug was officially imported into the Kurdistan Region, the company has been given a month to withdraw the medicine [markets] and after investigation and finding the drug, they will be destroyed,” Govand Rawand, who oversees monitoring the market at the directorate of drugs control, said.
In 2020 and early 2021, two Montalin shipments were imported with both passing inspection, “because they were herbal products,” but it is now suspected that counterfeit drugs will be sold for original ones, and that’s why we have demanded its withdrawal, Rawand said.
Tons of counterfeit medication are being smuggled into the Kurdistan Region through its border crossings; drug-importing companies often don’t have medically-recommended warehouses, with low-quality medicines posing a threat to public safety.
In June, a woman died over what was suspected to be the consumption of unauthorized weight-gain pills that were sold online, her family said.
Police Brigadier-General Dler Najar in January said around 45 tons of expired medicine was confiscated just in Erbil in 2020.
Dr. Parist Naqishbandi, Sulaimani’s pharmacists syndicate representative said they have not received any official documents saying the medicine is banned, but that they will eliminate it from the market “in the shortest time” once they receive the document.
Additional reporting by Shahyan Tahseen and Sidad Lashkri
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