Avaliação da falsificação de medicamentos a partir dos dados de laudos periciais do Departamento de Polícia Federal no Brasil no período de 2006 a 2012

MARCHETI, Ravane Gracy Ament. Evaluation of medicine counterfeiting in Brazil from pericial reports issued by the Brazilian Federal Police Department from 2006 to 2012. Brasilia. 2013. Dissertação (Mestrado em Ciências Farmacêuticas) Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, 2013. Medicine counterfeiting is a worldwide public health problem that has increased considerably in Brazil and in other countries. The main aim of this work was to evaluate the profile of medicine counterfeiting in Brazil using the data obtained from the Brazilian Federal Police Department’s (DPF) Criminalistics System database issued between 2006 and 2012. A total of 30,452 medicine products were seized and analyzed by the DPF during the period, from which 32.3% of Brazilian origin. The majority of the seized products were for human use with declared active ingredient (84.8%), followed by veterinary drugs (7.1%) and herbal medicines (3.4%). Over 3,300 different medicine products were seized, containing over 1,200 active ingredients, which were classified according to the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical. Over 60% of the products were chemically analyzed, while the others were only visually inspected. About 60% of the products did not have a registration from the Brazilian government authorities. Counterfeit was confirmed in 9.7% of all seized products, mainly erectile dysfunction (40.2%), androgenic steroid product (32.2%) and androgens (15.8%). Counterfeiting was confirmed through the lot number, package and absence of the declared active ingredient. Out of the 233 herbal medicines chemically analyzed, 14.2% contained at least one chemical, mainly orfenadrin, a muscle relaxant. About 5% of the seized products did not have any identification, and contained mainly appetite inhibitors and antidepressants. The information gathered in this study can support future government authority actions, including the DPF and ANVISA, aiming at reducing medicine counterfeit and smuggling into the country and protecting the consumer.