Big Problem

In 2000, an Interpol survey of major pharmacies in Lagos, Nigeria, discovered that 80% of the medicines on sale were fake. This extent of prevalence is consistent with WHO data that suggests that 25% of the medicines sold across the developing world are inauthentic copies containing little or no active ingredients. Such medication increases the resistance of pathogens to first-line medication and in many cases causes fatalities.

Most analysts believe that the vast majority of counterfeit drug-related deaths and impairments go unreported and unrecorded. But even the few events that reach public attention reveal a situation that is harrowing in every aspect and detail.

In 1998, fake birth prevention pills led to 200 unwanted pregnancies. 75 Haitian children died soon after from the toxic effects of ethylene glycol that had made their way into fake anti-fever pharmaceuticals.

• Issue 2568 of New Scientist magazine, 08 September 2006, page 8-9.
• Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals – Update on Current Status and Future Projections, by Albert Wertheimer, Thomas Santell and Nicole M Chaney, 22nd October 2004.
• Andy Coghlan, The Lancet Infectious Diseases (volume 6, p 602).