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Smuggled Medicines Save Lives
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/02/smuggled-drugs-save-lives-2/
“We are aware of huge stocks of medicine being smuggled into Pakistan from Afghanistan but we don’t take action because we know these benefit the local population." -- drug inspector Muhammad Riaz
Smuggled Medicines Save Lives
By Ashfaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Feb 26 2014 (IPS) - They are contraband, yet a large number of Pakistanis have come to depend on drugs made in India and smuggled into Pakistan. Patients as well as doctors say these are cheap and effective, even as law enforcers look the other way.
The two countries do not have a trade agreement on drugs, but markets in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the north of Pakistan do brisk business in India-made medicines that are sold over the counter.
“I have been prescribing India-made medicines to patients for a long time because of their effectiveness,” Dr Abdul Kabir, a medical practitioner based on the outskirts of Peshawar, tells IPS.
Doctors in rural areas prescribe them to people who cannot afford the pharmaceutical products of western multinational companies or do not find local brands effective.
