Counterfeit medications are not under the restraints of quality control. They are made to look exactly like the real medications they are imitating. It is estimated that five percent of the world's medications are counterfeits, costing manufacturers losses of approximately twenty billion dollars per year. Many times fake drugs contain the correct ingredients in incorrect quantities, but most contain a wrong active ingredient, or no active ingredient at all. History shows that substituting or omitting active ingredients can cause many health risks.
Years ago in Haiti, nearly one hundred cases of fatal kidney insufficiency in children was documented due to contaminated counterfeit cough syrup. Counterfeit vaccines have been found in Niger, and research shows that up to eighty thousand children were treated with the impostor drugs. Over one hundred children acquired fatal infections, possibly from the fake vaccines.
Counterfeit drugs have been ignored by the pharmaceutical industry and regulatory agencies. The Pharmaceutical Security Institute has been established to investigate and locate counterfeit medications. Reports from this institution have not been provided to authorities or made public though. A global conference on counterfeiting was organized in Switzerland in 2002. The conference concluded that this underestimated problem was not being taken seriously by governments.
The WHO was developed to react to concerns about counterfeit medications. In the mid-1980s it requested to initiate programs for the prevention and detection of counterfeit drugs, as well as the importation and smuggling of these substances. Lack of funds have prevented the WHO from being effective.
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Buying drugs from other countries is a risky business. I know several people who have bought prescription drugs from Mexico because they are cheaper. Without proper regulation there is no way of knowing what is in the drugs they are buying. Consumers should really way the risk and benefits of buying cheaper versions of their medications.
ReplyDeleteAngie Wallis, SN, UTA SON
I do not think people were aware untill recently that counterfit precription drugs exsisted.i know i did not know this was even an issue. thank you for the information
ReplyDeleteI did not even know counterfeit prescription drugs were a problem. How do you know if you are getting a counterfeit drug? I can understand how it can happen in other countries where this isn't regulated. Are these drugs making it into our local pharmacies? Maybe if these incidences were reported more in the media, then the government would offer more support to the agencies trying to investigate and stop them.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad that the media does not devote any time to the dangers of counterfeit medications. Pharmaceutical companies do not want to scare the public and cause reductions in their sales, so the media may never be a factor on this issue.
ReplyDeleteThat is extremely unfortunate that the people of places like Haiti and Niger, who would under their normal circumstances be perfectly safe and healthy, are having these problems. I also feel a huge strain on my heart when I think of the poor prescription companies that lose money to these counterfeits. I'm sure in my heart these huge billion dollar corporation are distraught by the suffering of those people and would be absolutely willing to provide free medicines to them. I just can't understand why these people are taking counterfeit drugs when the giant faceless corporation try so hard to give them afforadable drugs out of the goodness of their hearts...
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