Murder by fake drugs Time for international action
Are we just going to publish such stories and do nothing in action?
When I was a medical Student 3 decades ago one of my friends owned a medical Store in Hyderabad
He would show me two tablets of a medicine which are exact looking copies and one was sold for 10 rupees and had the real drug and the other had chalk and sold for 2 rupees.
Unless we can really do something to curb this fake drug menace human life will be hanging by a thread.
I suggest all the real drug manufacturers should band together and spend a portion of the Billions of dollars they spend on marketing of medicines to fight this menace.
Paul N Newton, clinical lecturer
Centre for Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Oxford University, Oxford OX3 9DU (moc.liamtoh@001luapnotwen)
Nicholas J White, professor of tropical medicine
Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand (ht.ca.lodiham.dnomaid@wjnnf)
Jan A Rozendaal, malaria control adviser
Asian Development Bank - Intensified Communicable Disease Control Project, Ministry of Health, Jakarta, Indonesia
Michael D Green, chemist
Division of Parasitic Diseases, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA
Copyright and License information ► Disclaimer
This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.
Until recently the most infamous internationally known example of fake drug dealing was Graham Greene's fictional account of a British fake penicillin peddler who was eliminated in the sewers of postwar Vienna in The Third Man.1 Unfortunately, malevolent dealings in counterfeit drugs are very much a contemporary reality. Notorious recent real examples include neomycin eye drops and meningococcal vaccine made of tap water; paracetamol syrup made of industrial solvent; ampicillin consisting of turmeric; contraceptive pills made of wheat flour; and antimalarials, antibiotics, and snake antivenom containing no active ingredients.2–9
In a recent survey of pharmacies in the Philippines, 8% of drugs bought were fake (quoted by Wondemagegnehu2). A countrywide survey in Cambodia in 1999 showed that 60% of 133 drug vendors sampled sold, as the antimalarial mefloquine, tablets that contained the ineffective but much cheaper sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine, obtained from stocks that should have been destroyed, or fakes that contained no drug at all.3,4 In another recent survey, 38% of tablets sold in five countries in mainland South East Asia as the new antimalarial artesunate were fake.5 Artesunate is an extremely important antimalarial drug, and its rapid action and lack of side effects have created significant demand in endemic areas. These characteristics, along with a relatively high cost, make artesunate particularly attractive to counterfeiters, who have gone to great lengths to deceive patients, using small amounts of ineffectual bitter chloroquine, copying the blister pack design, and even providing fake holograms on the package.5 Some counterfeit drugs contain actively harmful ingredients, not just bogus placebos. For example, aspirin, thought to be an important contributor to acidosis in children with malaria10 and a cause of Reye's syndrome, has been used in the manufacture of fake chloroquine in Africa.6
Influx of fake drugs to Nigeria worries health experts.
Raufu A.
BMJ. 2002 Mar 23;324(7339):698. No abstract available.
PMID: 11909782 Free PMC Article
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Counterfeit drugs: implications for health.
ten Ham M.
Adverse Drug React Toxicol Rev. 1992 Spring;11(1):59-65. No abstract available.
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Problems associated with substandard and counterfeit drugs in developing countries: a review article on global implications of counterfeit drugs in the era of antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs in a free market economy.
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East Afr J Public Health. 2008 Dec;5(3):205-10. Review.
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[Internet pharmacies and counterfeit drugs].
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Are we just going to publish such stories and do nothing in action?
When I was a medical Student 3 decades ago one of my friends owned a medical Store in Hyderabad
He would show me two tablets of a medicine which are exact looking copies and one was sold for 10 rupees and had the real drug and the other had chalk and sold for 2 rupees.
Unless we can really do something to curb this fake drug menace human life will be hanging by a thread.
I suggest all the real drug manufacturers should band together and spend a portion of the Billions of dollars they spend on marketing of medicines to fight this menace.
The Global Pharma Health Fund (GPHF)
only Merk is contributing to this \ let all others join
Paul N Newton, clinical lecturer
Centre for Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Oxford University, Oxford OX3 9DU (moc.liamtoh@001luapnotwen)
Nicholas J White, professor of tropical medicine
Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand (ht.ca.lodiham.dnomaid@wjnnf)
Jan A Rozendaal, malaria control adviser
Asian Development Bank - Intensified Communicable Disease Control Project, Ministry of Health, Jakarta, Indonesia
Michael D Green, chemist
Division of Parasitic Diseases, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA
Copyright and License information ► Disclaimer
This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.
Until recently the most infamous internationally known example of fake drug dealing was Graham Greene's fictional account of a British fake penicillin peddler who was eliminated in the sewers of postwar Vienna in The Third Man.1 Unfortunately, malevolent dealings in counterfeit drugs are very much a contemporary reality. Notorious recent real examples include neomycin eye drops and meningococcal vaccine made of tap water; paracetamol syrup made of industrial solvent; ampicillin consisting of turmeric; contraceptive pills made of wheat flour; and antimalarials, antibiotics, and snake antivenom containing no active ingredients.2–9
In a recent survey of pharmacies in the Philippines, 8% of drugs bought were fake (quoted by Wondemagegnehu2). A countrywide survey in Cambodia in 1999 showed that 60% of 133 drug vendors sampled sold, as the antimalarial mefloquine, tablets that contained the ineffective but much cheaper sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine, obtained from stocks that should have been destroyed, or fakes that contained no drug at all.3,4 In another recent survey, 38% of tablets sold in five countries in mainland South East Asia as the new antimalarial artesunate were fake.5 Artesunate is an extremely important antimalarial drug, and its rapid action and lack of side effects have created significant demand in endemic areas. These characteristics, along with a relatively high cost, make artesunate particularly attractive to counterfeiters, who have gone to great lengths to deceive patients, using small amounts of ineffectual bitter chloroquine, copying the blister pack design, and even providing fake holograms on the package.5 Some counterfeit drugs contain actively harmful ingredients, not just bogus placebos. For example, aspirin, thought to be an important contributor to acidosis in children with malaria10 and a cause of Reye's syndrome, has been used in the manufacture of fake chloroquine in Africa.6
Influx of fake drugs to Nigeria worries health experts.
Raufu A.
BMJ. 2002 Mar 23;324(7339):698. No abstract available.
PMID: 11909782 Free PMC Article
Similar articles
Select item 1606284
3.
Counterfeit drugs: implications for health.
ten Ham M.
Adverse Drug React Toxicol Rev. 1992 Spring;11(1):59-65. No abstract available.
PMID: 1606284
Similar articles
Select item 19374325
4.
Problems associated with substandard and counterfeit drugs in developing countries: a review article on global implications of counterfeit drugs in the era of antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs in a free market economy.
Nsimba SE.
East Afr J Public Health. 2008 Dec;5(3):205-10. Review.
PMID: 19374325
Similar articles
Select item 19242667
5.
[Internet pharmacies and counterfeit drugs].
Schweim JK, Schweim HG.
Med Klin (Munich). 2009 Feb 15;104(2):163-9. doi: 10.1007/s00063-009-1027-5. German.
PMID: 19242667
Similar articles
Select item 18607355
6.
New countermeasures considered as drug counterfeiting grows.
Schubert C.
Nat Med. 2008 Jul;14(7):700. doi: 10.1038/nm0708-700a. No abstract available.
PMID: 18607355
Similar articles
Select item 19004698
7.
Counterfeiting and piracy of pharmaceuticals.
Grackin A.
IEEE Eng Med Biol Mag. 2008 Nov-Dec;27(6):66-9. doi: 10.1109/MEMB.2008.929891. No abstract available.
PMID: 19004698
Similar articles
Select item 15724152
8.
Pharmaceutical counterfeiting.
Deisingh AK.
Analyst. 2005 Mar;130(3):271-9. Epub 2004 Dec 14. Review.
PMID: 15724152
Similar articles
Select item 16497756
9.
WHO to set up international task force on counterfeit drugs.
Zarocostas J.
BMJ. 2006 Feb 25;332(7539):444. No abstract available.
PMID: 16497756 Free PMC Article
Similar articles
Select item 20376036
10.
Beef up international cooperation on counterfeits.
Shepherd M.
Nat Med. 2010 Apr;16(4):366. doi: 10.1038/nm0410-366.
PMID: 20376036
Similar articles
Select item 1606281
11.
Counterfeit medicines--the case for action.
Volans GN.
Adverse Drug React Toxicol Rev. 1992 Spring;11(1):3. No abstract available.
PMID: 1606281
Similar articles
Select item 19349733
12.
Co-proxamol (distalgesic) procurement in Bahrain. Policy implications for Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
Al Khaja KA, Sequeira RP, Damanhori AH.
Med Princ Pract. 2009;18(3):253-4. doi: 10.1159/000204361. Epub 2009 Apr 6. No abstract available.
PMID: 19349733 Free Article
Similar articles
Select item 11408295
13.
Fake prescription drugs are flooding the United States.
Charatan F.
BMJ. 2001 Jun 16;322(7300):1443. No abstract available.
PMID: 11408295 Free PMC Article
Similar articles
Select item 11526945
14.
Fake AIDS drugs found.
[No authors listed]
AIDS Patient Care STDS. 2001 Aug;15(8):446. No abstract available.
PMID: 11526945
Similar articles
Select item 6783954
15.
WHO's response to international drug control treaties.
Khan I.
NIDA Res Monogr. 1981 Feb;34:64-7. No abstract available.
PMID: 6783954
Similar articles
Select item 106300
16.
International challenge of drug abuse: a perspective from the United Nations.
Ling GM, Gomez del Prado J.
NIDA Res Monogr. 1978;(19):60-8. No abstract available.
PMID: 106300
Similar articles
Select item 17078121
17.
Russia cracks down on counterfeit drugs.
Parfitt T.
Lancet. 2006 Oct 28;368(9546):1481-2. No abstract available.
PMID: 17078121
Similar articles
Select item 2067433
18.
The war against drugs. II. Why the war against drugs has failed.
Wodak A.
Med J Aust. 1991 Jul 1;155(1):37-8. No abstract available.
PMID: 2067433
Similar articles
Select item 11419218
19.
Knockoffs on the pharmacy shelf.
Pasternak D.
US News World Rep. 2001 Jun 11;130(23):26-7. No abstract available.
PMID: 11419218
Similar articles
Select item 11433258
20.
Fake biotech drugs raise concerns.
Fox JL.
Nat Biotechnol. 2001 Jul;19(7):603. No abstract available.
PMID: 11433258
Similar articles
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