How to Check if Drugs and Manufacturers Are Real?
Rich countries, like Europe and the United States keep track of the drugs registered through tracking systems and sophisticated equipment. They have mobile labs and hand-held spectrometers whereby they can check the validity of a drug. Through this syste,m manufacturers and their products are kept in control.
There are online databases regarding drug manufacturers and their products. One of these online databases is called First DataBank. First DataBank’s National Drug Data File Plus provides descriptions and collateral clinical information on drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In other countries, mainly developing countries like Africa where they are short of medicine, some of the medication they receive might not be “real.” The Nigerian government has set up a system whereby customers can check the validity of their drugs, through sending text messages. Potential customers can submit their codes to the central hot line, and instantly they will receive a message, which will tell them that either “OK,” or in the worst case “No. Please recheck code,” meaning that the drug is fake.
The Nigerian government has set up this system for the anti-malaria drugs, and they want to include Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in the trials as well. They are also planning on widening the scale not only for anti-malaria drugs, but for others medications too. This system of sending and receiving text messages on cell phones could work, since the African population does its banking through cell phones. However, this level of “security” is still like a baby being held in a cradle, and receives various reviews of its efficiency and the ways it can be exploited.
What can an ordinary man do if he isn’t sure of the validity and the realness of the drug he might find? There other ways for checking out a drug one is interested in, namely a website called Drug.com. It is the most comprehensive and up-to-date source of drug information one can be acquainted with. It allows users to search for any specific drug one is about to buy, however the story does not stop here. Drug.com provides information on the drug as well, like indications of when to take it, possible side effects, how to take it, what to do in case of an overdose, what to avoid when one is using a specific drug, the required amount of it and the interactions of the specific drug with other drugs. Drug.com does not only include information for US medications, but international and UK based drug databases are also available on their website.
Other websites like Drug InfoNet, Healthtouch – Drug Information, OnHealth! – Drug Database, Rx-List Internet Drug Index, Nursing Drug Reference Center are at the disposal of potential buyers; therefore there are lots of ways for finding reference for a specific drug.