Finns unwittingly using medicines made in low-labour-cost countries

Finnish pharmaceuticals firm Orion unwilling to reveal country of origin

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Finnish patients are unwittingly using medicines that have been made in India, Turkey, China, or some other low-labour-cost country. According to the National Agency for Medicines (NAM), the country of origin is not shown in the packet, nor in the product description.
      Under the present Medicines Act, this information is regarded as a business secret which can be revealed only by the company itself.
     
According to the NAM, market authorisations have been applied in Finland for a total of 382 pharmaceutical products of Indian origin. The figure is equal to about five per cent of all medicines on sale in Finland, and around ten per cent of the so-called generic drugs, which lack patent protection.
      The number of pharmaceutical products of Turkish origin available in Finland is 158, while only two Chinese drugs are on general sale in this country.
      While advertising itself as a domestic manufacturer, the Finnish pharmaceuticals company Orion started its production in India earlier this year, with "a few" prescription products already having been launched onto the market. However, Orion is not willing to reveal which of its products are made in India.
     
Jukka Viinanen, the President of Orion Corporation, reports that 12 Indian researchers are currently working for Orion at a local research institute in Mumbai, and it is likely that more researchers will be hired, even though the research and product development operations will continue to be led from Finland.
      The National Agency for Medicines is now demanding that customers should have the right to know the origins of a medicine.
      "I feel that a patient should be entitled to know the actual manufacturer of a drug or at least its country of origin", says Professor Jussi Holmalahti from the NAM.
      The number of drugs made in India for sale in Finland has been growing strongly since the spring of 2003, after a new law took effect requiring pharmacies to primarily offer patients the least expensive version of a medicine that is available. Typically, the cheapest version is a copy of the original medicine, which a generic manufacturer starts producing after the original patent has expired.
      The National Agency for Medicines is now demanding that customers should have the right to know the background and origin of the medications they are buying.
     
The majority of the medicines manufactured and packaged in India for sale in Finland are imported by companies that are specialized in the manufacturing of parallel drugs and the related imports.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Generic buprenorphine could increase illicit use of drug (30.11.2006)
  Planned legislation would reduce available generic drugs (6.8.2004)
  AstraZeneca board member says generic drug manufacturers take advantage of Finland (11.3.2004)
  Generic medicines spark considerable price competition at pharmacies (15.4.2003)

Links:
  National Agency for Medicines (NAM)
  Orion

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