Fake medicines

Globally, the trade in counterfeit pharmaceuticals is worth up to $200bn (£150bn) annually, with Africa among the regions most affected, according to industry estimates. The World Health Organization (WHO) says 42% of all fake medicines reported to them between 2013 and 2017 were from Africa. 

• Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia and Sierra Leone seized 19 tonnes of counterfeit medicines in 2018
• Smugglers in Ivory Coast were intercepted trying to bring in 12 tonnes of counterfeit pharmaceuticals from Ghana in 2019
• An Interpol-led operation in seven West African countries seized more than 420 tonnes of illicit pharmaceutical products in 2017
• Nearly 19.88 tonnes of fake medicines were seized in Mali between 2015-18

The accounting firm PwC says the proportion of fake pharmaceuticals in some countries can be as high as 70%, in developing regions such as Africa. The WHO estimates one out of every 10 medical products in low- and middle-income countries, which includes most of Africa, is sub-standard or fake.

Analysis by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for the WHO estimates substandard and fake anti-malarial drugs could be causing 116,000 extra deaths from the disease every year in sub-Saharan Africa at a cost to patients and health systems of on average $38.5m a year.

And in 2015, a study published in the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene estimated more than 122,000 children under the age of five died each year because of sub-standard anti-malarial drugs in sub-Saharan Africa.

Scientists say poor quality drugs are important contributors to under-five mortality rates.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/the-fake-medicines-in-africa-that-can-kill/ar-BBZ3dlO?ocid=spartanntp