Most sanitizers used in Turkish hospitals are fake, pharmaceutical company head tells health minister

Merkez İlaç CEO Mehmet Şapçı has told Health Minister Fahrettin Koca that most of the sanitizers used in hospitals are fake. According to Şapçı, these fake products have around 3.3 percent povidone-iodine, whereas the standard is at 10 percent. He also named the fake products in the letter he sent to the minister.

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The head of a pharmaceutical company has told Health Minister Fahrettin Koca that most of the sanitizers used in hospitals are fake.

Merkez İlaç CEO Mehmet Şapçı named 33 fake sanitizers belonging to nine brands in a letter he sent to the minister, daily Sözcü reported on Sept. 23.

According to Şapçı, these products don't provide protection and that people are dying because of them.

He noted that since antiseptic disinfectants are accepted as medicine in the law, they should only be produced in pharmaceutical companies with scientific methods.

Saying that the disinfectants need to consist of at least 10 percent povidone-iodine to provide protection from the coronavirus (COVID-19), Şapçı said that the percentage is around 3.3 in these fake products, causing the virus to spread quickly.

In the letter, Şapçı included the results of the analysis of the products that he said are fake.

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