Fake medications, a danger to your health

• April 16, 2024

It has been known for many years that counterfeit medicines have claimed the lives of many people, especially in poor countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. German Criminal Investigation Department (BKA, for its acronym in German) has sounded the alarm: also in Europe and the United States there is a strong increase in false or adulterated medicines.

It is a very profitable market with revenues close to 25 billion dollars per year. In this regard, the WHO estimates that every year about 100 thousand people die from the consumption of counterfeit medicines.

According to these assessments, 10% of all drugs that were traded in China are counterfeit and there are many cases, such as the death of 100 children treated with adulterated syrup in Nigeria or the burn ointment marketed in Mexico, which was actually a sawdust mixture.

The WHO He points out that the problem, although it is the same, has different bases: in less affluent countries merchants take advantage of the shortage of medicines to sell their fake products.

While in the industrialized nations, the increase is due to internet commerce and the enlargement of the European Union.

Copies "almost" perfect

The BKA and representatives of the pharmaceutical industry are concerned about the significant increase in the sale of counterfeit medicines in Europe and the United States. Michaela Debus, of the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis, has indicated that currently 7% of all medicines that are traded worldwide are counterfeit.

The researchers say that one of the biggest problems facing the European pharmaceutical industry is that the copies are technically perfect, especially those that come from Eastern Europe.

In this case, it is very difficult to verify the physical consequences of these medications. The BKA indicates that the potential that is opened with the new communication technologies and with the soon entrance of 10 new members to the European Union is enormous.

For its part, the Federal Association of the German Pharmaceutical Industry (BPI for its acronym in German), believes that part of the boom in the counterfeit market is due to large differences in drug prices.

The law currently provides for a one-year jail sentence for anyone caught falsifying or adulterating a drug.

Video Medicine: Timothy Mackey: Blockchain - The new frontier in the fight against counterfeit medicines? (April 2024).