It is difficult to distinguish between "machine brand" and "national medicine quasi-brand"; the propaganda plays a marginal role, suggesting a variety of therapeutic effects
Tear open the chaos under the plaster "sticker"
Reporter Li Guoben Intern Zhang Yongyan Deng Xinyun
"Workers Daily" (version 04 on January 18, 2022)
"Not long ago, I bought an old plaster for lumbar disc herniation on the Internet. It cost 60 yuan per sticker. I felt discomfort after sticking it for about 3 days." Instead of disappearing, symptoms such as itching, redness and swelling appeared. After a hospital diagnosis, it was known that the skin allergy was caused by inferior plaster.
The reporter of "Worker's Daily" found in the interview that the plaster is favored by the majority of patients with cervical vertebrae pain and joint pain because of its convenient use, fast onset of effect and small side effects.
However, due to the lack of supervision and supervision technology, and the low requirements for production technology, the plasters on the market are mixed.
Expand the scope of application
Nowadays, not only the elderly will have joint pain, but also young people will have joint pain more or less, and plaster has become an indispensable product for some people.
According to statistics, in 2021, the sales volume of topical plaster drugs in retail pharmacies in my country will be close to 6 billion yuan.
However, there are many diseases that cause pain symptoms, and some plaster products are arbitrarily expanded.
According to the staff of the Chongqing market supervision department, they found in their daily inspection that the scope of application approved on the registration form of some plaster products is "adjuvant treatment of pain caused by lumbar muscle strain, knee arthritis, etc.", while its outer packaging The scope of application on the box is directly marked as "pain caused by lumbar muscle strain, knee arthritis, etc.".
Manufacturers deliberately ignore keywords such as "adjuvant therapy" to mislead consumers.
The reporter's investigation found that some plaster products were too exaggerated in their publicity, using words such as "one sticker is effective", "invalid refund" and "cure all pains"; there are also some plaster products claiming to be century-old medicines, or claiming to be exclusive formulas.
A practitioner in a plaster production industry told reporters that the production cost of a plaster varies from a few cents to a few cents, but the price after the package is listed will be more than ten yuan, or even hundreds of yuan.
"There is a large demand from the public, but the rationality and scientificity of the medication is not high. It is not easy to identify the various types of plasters on the market." The practitioner said.
Many registration categories
"There are many companies and people who commit crimes against the wind. Even if they are investigated, the illegal cost is not very high." Li Wenjian, director of the Chongqing Key Laboratory of the State Sports General Administration, said that for the many problems existing in plaster products, it is necessary to strengthen supervision and supervision technology. to be in place.
According to relevant regulations, drug-containing patch products must obtain a drug registration approval number in accordance with the law, and patch products that do not contain drug ingredients and are mainly based on physical effects must be registered as medical devices.
Some plaster products on the market are managed according to medical devices, and some are managed according to drugs.
Compared with the strict examination and approval process of "National Medicines Approved Brand", "Mechanical Brand", especially the first-class medical device products, can be produced only by filing, which greatly shortens the time to market of products.
Some merchants mass-produce "machine-brand plaster" based on consumers' recognition of the efficacy of plaster itself and the vagueness of drug management regulations.
In addition, there are still a small number of plaster products with alternative document numbers on the market, such as "Jian Yong Zheng Zi", "Jian Zheng Zi", "Jian Zhun Zi" and "Zhen Zheng Zi".
According to industry insiders, is a plaster with Chinese medicine added to it, is it a medicine, a medical device, or a health care product?
Lack of uniform standards.
However, some health-care plaster plays "edge ball" when promoting, implying that it has a therapeutic effect on certain diseases.
For example, the scope of application of a health care patch is: suitable for pain caused by fractures, rheumatism, rheumatoid arthritis, etc.
Dig out the "cancer" in the industrial chain
Peng Junwu, who has been engaged in the sales of medical devices for many years, said that in the face of the chaos in the plaster product market, the relevant regulatory authorities urgently need to rectify the purchase and sales channels and establish a set of standardized regulatory measures and countermeasures.
Li Wenjian believes that the regulatory authorities must take strong medicine.
Approval, production, operation, use and other links must be strictly supervised to dig out the "cancer" in the industrial chain.
Plasters in which medicines play a major role shall be managed as medicines; where medical devices play a major role and medicines play an auxiliary role, they shall be managed as three types of medical devices.
Mo Yuanming, a researcher at the Chongqing Yangtze River Upstream Economic Research Institute, believes that when micro-businesses are prevalent, the regulatory authorities should further optimize technical means, especially monitoring technologies, including WeChat monitoring, advertising monitoring, etc., as long as there is a large area and a large amount of sales in a short period of time The plaster products must be sent to the local regulatory department as soon as possible for corresponding investigation and evidence collection, and the illegal production and sales will be severely punished.