“It can be more profitable than arms, oil and narcotics,” said Dr. Zain Abdul-Rahman Mutabji, a pharmacist and professor at the University of Sulaymaniyah. “But if the law is properly applied, smugglers will not be able to make these profits.”
There are doubts about how well these laws and regulations are working, however.
Dr. Aras Ali Muhammad, who works at the Daik Pharmacy in Sulaymaniyah, said that the absence of a proper health system or "drug import and export apparatus” to thoroughly regulate their distribution means that pharmacies illegally import drugs to avoid delays and extra costs.
Well-known pharmaceutical companies distribute their drugs in the Middle East through the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Lebanon. From there, the legally transported drugs enter the market in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region once they are tested and approved by authorities.
But there can be up to a two-month delay in approval before drugs are released from official quality control testing. What’s more, regulators don’t have the capacity to examine all the drugs that are needed, Muhammad said. He reported overhearing a quality control official say that authorities can only test 30 to 35 percent of the drugs on the market.
And certification can easily be forged. But this might not make much of a difference either way, because “some of the big pharmaceutical companies are owned by politicians who have high government positions, and these are usually above the law,” Muhammad added.
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