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Depok Police are investigating the alleged sale of expired prescription and over-the-counter drugs they believe were gleaned from a waste processing center in Cilengsi, Bogor.

Depok District Police chief Sr. Comr. Ferry Abraham said police were looking for an employee at the waste processing center, identified as N., whom they believed was collecting and reselling the expired drugs.

“From the admission of one of the suspects that we have already arrested, he had obtained the medicine from someone who has N. as his initial. We are still looking for this N.,” Ferry said.

Depok Police arrested two men, identified as A.S and D.S., on Saturday on suspicion of selling expired drugs in Jatinegara, East Jakarta. Police said the medications were repackaged and in some cases augmented with other chemicals and substances.

Among the reprocessed drugs confiscated from the two men were anti-fever syrups; various antibiotics, including ciprofloxacin and co-amoxiliclav; multivitamins; and intravenous drugs used to treat diabetes and ulcers.

Ferry said police suspected N. of supplying the two men and also collecting expired medicines from other waste processing centers.

“It could also be that he is not only selling the medicines in Jakarta but also in other regions,” he said.

Ferry said the waste processing center N. worked at regularly received large shipments of expired medications from a number of pharmacies in Bandung and Bogor.

Instead of destroying the drugs, Ferry said, N. would instead resell them.

“However, not all of the medicines are kept. Usually he only keeps those general medicines that can be easily sold in the marketplace.”

N. would then give the drugs to other parties for repackaging and reprocessing, Ferry said. Some of the medications would simply be re-stamped with valid expiration dates. The refurbished medicines would then be distributed in large batches at prices drastically lower than the original retail cost.

Ferry said police were trying to uncover the distributors of the repackaged black market drugs so they could trace and seize the illicit products before any more were sold.

He added that the two suspects in custody had told police that the drugs were only sold to smaller stalls, and never to pharmacies or larger shops.

Ferry blamed much of the problem of illegally resold drugs on lax supervision of the disposal process. He said the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency, or BPPOM, should bear the responsibility for overseeing the destruction of the drugs.

He said he planned to coordinate with the BPPOM to compel the agency to step up its supervision and monitoring efforts regarding the disposal of unused drugs.