In Tashkent, the entry into the country of more than 21 tons of counterfeit medicines brought from China has been halted. This was reported to Darakchi.uz by Husan Tangriev, head of the press service of the Customs Committee.
According to the report, the situation was detected during customs inspection of cargo at the "Aviacargo" foreign economic activity customs post in the specialized customs complex "Tashkent-Aero".
During the inspection, serious violations were revealed in a shipment of an infusion medicine called "Efba" weighing more than 21 tons.
Although the customs cargo declaration indicated that this drug was manufactured in India, during inspection it was found that the packaging and labels of the medicine contained no information about the manufacturing country or enterprise. Instead, the packaging only noted which company had commissioned the production of the drug. Also, the Chinese inscriptions on the containers indicated that it was not manufactured in India.
According to the Customs Committee, imported medicines of this kind require a compliance certificate from the Center for Safety of Pharmaceutical Products under the Ministry of Health.
According to the investigation, in obtaining this certificate, the cargo owners presented an authentic sample of the drug "Efba" manufactured in India. They then planned to use that certificate to import a large quantity of counterfeit medicines into Uzbekistan.
Customs officers noted that if this scheme had been implemented, more than 160 thousand boxes of counterfeit medicines could have been delivered to pharmacies.
Experts note that the main active ingredient of the infusion solution "Efba" is levofloxacin, which belongs to the group of strong antibiotics. Therefore, the use of counterfeit versions could lead to worsening infections, severe allergic reactions, poisoning, and other life-threatening complications.
According to preliminary estimates, the total value of the counterfeit medicines placed in temporary storage exceeds 7.3 billion soums.
