World Health Organization warns of counterfeit Saudi medications sent as “humanitarian aid shipment” to Iraq

(Geneva, Switzerland) – According to pan-Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat, Ms. Fadéla Chaib, World Health Organization’s (WHO) spokeswoman in an interview with United Nations Radio warned of a suspicious Saudi relief cargo sent to Iraq and delivered to Iraqi officials on Thursday morning.

Ms. Chaib pointed to the fact that most of these medications are probably toxic and expired, adding: “the Saudi officials prevented our inspectors stationed at the Riyadh airport to take necessary samples from the consignment and conduct field tests which is obviously mandatory under the international regulations but after long and tenacious discussions with Iraqi officials we could finally conduct laboratory testing. After performing meticulous laboratory tests and quality control we sadly realized that this shipment of Saudi medical donation is replete with either expired or counterfeit drugs.”

We sent a list of Saudi donated medications to our colleagues in U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), added Chaib , and the reply was quite shocking; out of 133 types of Saudi drugs sent to Iraq, 58 of them are considered in experimental stage and unverified pharmaceutically manufactured drugs.

“…the Saudi terrorist regime deems Iraqis as libratory mice. I believe all countries, UN and international bodies must not stand idly by while Poor Iraqis killed silently We cannot witness yet another humanitarian catastrophe,” said WHO’s spokeswoman.