The news of a fake malaria drug in our country really was a shock to many, including some health officials who might have prescribed this drug to patients. Indeed last Thursday the statement alerted the public of the presence of fake coartem malaria tablets in Kumasi.
The statement said the confirmatory tests on the fake products have shown that the fake Coartem tablets do not contain Artemether and Lumefantrine, the main active ingredients of the original and genuine Coartem tablet.
This means that most of the people in Kumasi and the Ashanti Region in general who had taken or are taking the fake tablet derived no benefit from it, since counterfeit medications can be hazardous to the point of being deadly. It might not be in Kumasi alone, definitely, the drugs passed through Accra to Kumasi.
The FDB directed all pharmacies, licensed chemical stores and healthcare facilities to recall the fake drugs from their shelves and dispensaries. Health care workers have also been directed to assist patients and customers to distinguish genuine coartem from the counterfeit. This newspaper wonders why the FDB thinks a mere press release can compel pharmacists and dispensaries to comply with this directive.
The FDB knows more than anyone that the drug counterfeit business is a multi-million dollar business globally, which is gaining roots in Ghana, the emerging gateway to everything.
It has been estimated that up to 15% of all sold drugs are fake, and in parts of Africa this figure exceeds 50% , which paints a grim picture of health delivery in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa. China is emerging as a source country of counterfeit drugs . India and other Asian countries are emerging as sources. As Ghana’s trade with China and India is increasing each year, our authorities must keep a close eye on drugs from the two countries.
Read more about the fake drugs present in Africa.
fake drugs
fake drugs
Getting prescription medication into developing countries is hard enough. But what if the drugs that actually make it there don’t work? Or worse, they cause further harm?
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated three years ago that nearly one in four pharmaceutical drugs sold in the developing world is counterfeit, the New York Times reported this week. And recent discoveries suggest the war on fake drugs shows no sign of abating, as the pharmaceutical forgers wield increasingly sophisticated weaponry.
“The counterfeit drug business has become increasingly attractive for criminal syndicates,” according to the Times. “The profit potential is vast, yet punishment for those caught is typically much less severe than for illegal drugs like cocaine, law enforcement officials say.”
The more phony pills lining drug store shelves, the more treatment failures patients suffer. Not all are completely inert, either: drugs have been found to include low levels of active ingredients—too low to be effective, yet high enough to trigger drug resistance and to be detected in screening tests for fakes. Some can also contain ingredients used for irrelevant conditions. One purported antimalarial appeared to contain sildenafil, the main ingredient in the impotence drug Viagra.
Read the rest of this article on counterfeit drugs in developing countries.
counterfeit drugs
counterfeit drugs
Angie Drakulich blogged yesterday about a new report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which highlights that West Africa has “increasingly become the target of a range of counterfeit medications, including antibiotics, antiretroviral drugs and medicines to fight malaria and tuberculosis.”
The high demand for these types of drugs in West Africa and some other developing nations is the primary reason behind the significant increase in drug counterfeiting. West Africa has the highest estimated rate of malaria incidence on the African continent (98 million cases per year), according to a UNODC release. Nearly 60% of anti-infective medicines tested in Asia and Africa have been found to contain “insufficient amounts of active ingredients,” which can potentially promote the development of drug-resistant strains that can spread beyond those regions, says the release.
Because consumers have virtually no purchasing power or political voice, and counterfeit detection methods are extremely low in these regions, says the UNODC release, the environment is a counterfeiter’s dream. Revenues gained from 45 million counterfeit antimalarial medicines totaled $438 million in 2005, according to the UNODC report, and in 2010, that number is expected to rise to $75 billion.
Read the rest of this article on counterfeit medicines.
counterfeit medicines
counterfeit medicines
