KUWAIT: Security officials inspect counterfeit medicines seized yesterday. KUWAIT: Security officials inspect counterfeit medicines seized yesterday.

KUWAIT: Capital financial crime detectives arrested two Egyptians with half a million counterfeit medical pills that they sold for less than a quarter of the actual price, claiming they were genuine. An expert from the health ministry said that the medicines were fake and that genuine drugs were only given on doctors' prescriptions, because abusing them may cause death. After consulting medicine agents in Kuwait, he reiterated that they were counterfeit.

Interrogating the suspects, they said they bought them from a Bangladeshi, who was arrested, who said that he got the medicines from an Indian woman, who led police to a group of peddlers storing the medicines in a warehouse in Souq Mubarakiya, which was raided and the medicines confiscated. A case was filed and the suspects were referred to relevant authorities.

Counterfeit or knockoff drugs are medicines that do not match the description on the label of the containers that hold them. They may be contaminated, or may contain the wrong active ingredients, the correct active ingredient in the wrong amounts, or no active ingredients at all. Counterfeits may also be out-of-date drugs that have been repackaged with new expiration dates. Drugs can also be considered counterfeit if they contain the right ingredients in the right amounts, but they are not made by the manufacturer described on the label. All kinds of drugs can be counterfeited, including prescription and non-prescription medicines.

By Hanan Al-Saadoun