{"id":2362,"date":"2016-09-25T12:24:59","date_gmt":"2016-09-25T12:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/armando.info\/?p=2362"},"modified":"2016-09-25T12:24:59","modified_gmt":"2016-09-25T12:24:59","slug":"how-the-illegal-sale-of-cancer-drugs-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/how-the-illegal-sale-of-cancer-drugs-works\/","title":{"rendered":"How the illegal sale of cancer drugs works"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It \r\ndoes not take many speculations to understand why someone would resort to the \r\nillegal market in a country with medicine shortages of around 86%, according to \r\nthe Venezuelan Pharmaceutical Federation. It is already becoming a common \r\npractice in Venezuela, hand in hand with the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

However, \r\nfew talk about it. Fear for doing something illegal and exposing the person who \r\ngives them a small dose of life \u2014though often at the expense of denying that \r\nsame dose to another patient\u2014 predominates.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Ana \r\n(a fictitious name to protect her identity) has been an oncology patient. When \r\nfacing the disease, she faced the dilemma of submerging or not in the \r\nunderground medicine market. She continues today with the maintenance cycles \r\nthat the doctor prescribed, but the hardest phase of treatment has ended. You \r\ncould say it is out of danger. \"What they do with us is not human. Nobody should \r\nresell cancer drugs,\" she said in a first contact. A few months ago, she ran out \r\nof Avastin, a monoclonal antibody that is used in the treatment of different \r\ntypes of cancer, such as breast cancer. \"I needed it. It is distressing being \r\nsick and topping it with worries. When they diagnose cancer, they tell you to \r\navoid stress,\" she explains, face to face, in Maracaibo, the capital of the \r\nstate of Zulia (northwest of Venezuela), where she lives. It was at the clinic \r\nthere where she came into contact with the illegal drug market. Her treating \r\ndoctor gave her a phone number. \"He told me that I could get what I needed \r\nthere. He had already talked with other bachaqueros<\/I> [Editor\u2019s Note: \r\nSpanish name given in Venezuela to black market traders] but they did not \r\nfulfill. I paid good money and I was left with nothing.\"<\/p>\n\n\n

The \r\nseller seemed to have everything when there was hardly anything in the country. \r\n\"For example, he had filters for Taxol [Editor\u2019s Note: a taxane that prevents \r\nthe growth of cancer cells, used for breast and lung cancer and Kaposi's \r\nsarcoma<\/I>] when they were scarce. He could easily have everything I asked for \r\ncancer treatment. He said that he and a girl who worked with him could get me \r\neverything.\" Ana made several transactions with him. She paid to his checking \r\naccount and a friend picked up the merchandise in Caracas and took it to \r\nMaracaibo.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

How \r\nwas it possible to have such a supply of high-cost medicines? Were they stolen, \r\nbrought abroad or falsified? To clear those doubts and understand how the black \r\nmarket of high-cost medicines works it was necessary to have, at least, some \r\nsamples of the merchandise that the dealer \r\nhandled.<\/p>\n\n\n

Contact and First Encounter<\/h2>\n\n\n

In \r\norder not to raise suspicions, the author of this story pretends to be a \r\ncustomer. Using a pseudonym, she contacted R.L. She requested Methotrexate 2.5 \r\nmg tablets, which is used for psoriasis and rheumatic arthritis, but also in the \r\ntreatment of breast, skin, head, neck, and lung cancer. The sale price per sheet \r\nor blister of ten pills is Bs. 8,000 (about eight dollars at the average \r\nexchange rate of the illegal parallel market). The payment can be made by \r\ndeposit or transfer to two accounts in Mercantil and Banesco banks. The trader \r\noffers to send it by private courier, although through the MRW parcel service \r\nonly, with a charge of Bs. 850, or in person, if it is in Caracas. As the latter \r\nwas the case, Plaza the delivery was agreed to be in Plaza El C\u00f3nsul in La \r\nGuaira (state of Vargas, central coastal region), in front of the fishing pier \r\npopularly known as El Mosquero, on a Saturday morning.<\/p>\n\n