Economist Bekhzod Khoshimov, in an interview with lawyer and blogger Khushnudbek Khudoberdiev, reflected on measures to prevent poor-quality medicines from entering Uzbekistan.
'According to foreign media, 69 children had previously died in the Gambia. So why are we on par with countries like the Gambia and our children consuming substandard medicines?
What is the answer? Uzbekistan has inspection bodies for imported and domestic medicines. For someone, it is Uzstandard Agency, and for someone, it is the Agency on Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry. They have two goals: one is to determine safety, and the other is to calculate efficacy. Testing drugs requires costly laboratories. First, the physical-chemical composition and physical-chemical properties of drugs should be checked. Then you need to use the medicine experimentally and only allow their use. The economist said about $10,000 is spent on each medication in these processes.
According to Khoshimov, the first mistake was to assign such a responsible task to officials without sufficient funds.
For example, the budget of the US Food and Drug Administration, a separate organization involved in these processes in the United States, exceeds that of Uzbekistan. However, the medicines authorized by the Office were subject to all stages of testing in Uzbekistan. Although, in America, labs with multimillion-dollar budgets can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on one drug.
For example, Ukraine, and Georgia, have passed laws allowing for the non-reporting of drugs certified in developed countries. So I'm for it, too. Because once medicines or foodstuffs are produced and allowed abroad, the approval process in Uzbekistan is simply graft.
Medicines manufactured in our country or not approved in western countries are checked only by us', Bekhzod Koshimov added.
'At his suggestion, first of all, given the lack of expensive laboratories, scientists, and technology, and the absence of conditions, we should not approve new drugs ourselves. Secondly, if an Uzbek or foreign manufacturer does not support the drug in a developed country, its use should be prevented. Secondly, if an Uzbek or foreign manufacturer does not approve of the medicine in a developed country, its use should be discouraged.
'Because we have no way to understand it, and we must admit it,' economist emphasized.
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