According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), one in 10 drugs being sold in developing countries are either counterfeit or substandard, resulting in the death of tens of thousands of people, mostly children.
Experts reviewed 100 studies, involving more than 48,000 medicines. Drugs used for malaria and bacterial infections accounted for nearly 65% of falsified medicines.
Essential drugs like antibiotics and anti-malaria medication have reportedly become more expensive due to 20% duty tax on imported medications by the Federal government.
“Imagine a mother, who gives up food or other basic needs to pay for her child’s treatment, unaware that the medicines are substandard or falsified, and then that treatment causes her child to die, this is unacceptable,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
WHO says the increasing threat of counterfeit drugs is also a result of internet sales, which often create an avenue for toxic products.
A number of pharmacists in Africa say they are compelled to buy from the cheapest, rather than the safest suppliers.
WHO also stated that counterfeit drugs include products that have not been approved by regulators, fail to meet quality standards or deliberately misrepresenting an ingredient.
Counterfeit drugs could contain incorrect doses, wrong or bad ingredients or no active ingredient at all.
False medication may also lead to antibiotic resistance, undermining the potency of other medications in the future.
“This really is a global problem. In the age of cheap air travel and mass population movements, people who develop resistant infections because of substandard or falsified medicines in one country, can easily travel to another country and pass on the mutant infection.
So even if the medicines in the new host country are all perfect quality, they will not cure the disease,” said the report.
The counterfeit and substandard medical products also affect the legitimate manufacturers financially; as they lose when products are by criminal elements.
WHO noted that over the past four years, it has received reports of substandard or falsified medical products in all therapeutic categories, covering everything — from cancer medicines to contraception, from antibiotics to vaccines.
The report also stated that some 15 years ago, global sales of medicines rose above $500 billion for the first time. Since then, sales have doubled again, to approximately $1.1 trillion, with by far the largest growth occurring in middle-income markets.
Although the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC), has reiterated that most of the drugs in circulation in Nigeria are certified, NAFDAC disclosed that a survey on the circulation of fake Anti-Malaria drugs in Nigeria conducted by the United States in 2014 showed that it had reduced from 19.6% to 3.6%.
