DAGUPAN CITY, Pangasinan—The chief of Standards and Regulation Division (SRD) of the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) region 1 called on the people to beware of “drug peddlers on wheels” selling medicines on board vans similar to traders doing a house-to-house direct selling.

Dr. Reynaldo Jacinto, SRD chief, told this writer in a phone interview that these drug peddlers are operating illegally in the Ilocos region because they don’t have licensed depot in the area where they are doing their business.

“Drug distributors may be legitimate in their place where they have license to operate. However the moment they carry their stocks in a van, sell it to drugstores in region 1, that’s foul,” Jacinto said.

He added that peddling is illegal because their van becomes extension of their warehouse, say in Pampanga, Cabanatuan or Manila, he said. He added that to be legal, they have to put up a duly registered depot in region 1.

Jacinto said “under the pharmaceutical law, which hasn’t been implemented since its promulgation, distributors are required to put up depot in area where they make business”.

He advised drugstore owners/pharmacists to refrain purchasing from these dealers and advised them to report to his office in San Fernando City, La Union.

Jacinto said the possibility of selling counterfeit drugs with these peddlers is big because BFAD could not look into the quality of the medicines they sell.

“Para silang nag i special offer na paikot-ikot sa region 1 pero wala naman silang lisensyadong warehouse dito (They’re like offering special offer roaming around region 1 without licensed warehouse here),” he said.

He said it’s a different story if drugstore owners go directly to these distributors right in the area where they have licensed depot to operate, which is legal. But if these dealers go around, use their van as if it were their warehouse, and directly sell their drugs, that’s another story, Jacinto said.

Local distributors also complain about the existence of these “drug peddlers on wheels” because they don’t comply with BFAD requirements and then they penetrate in local areas where they don’t have permit to operate.

“That’s unfair business practice,” he said.

He said before these dealers should ply their trade here, they should get necessary permits first and comply with BFAD requirements.

Meanwhile, Jacinto said the Department of Health in Manila has already been asked by influential people whose illegal business have been affected by his no-nonsense campaign to remove him in his position.

But he said he will be unrelenting in his campaign.