Counterfeit medicines: relevance, consequences and strategies to combat the global crisis

Abstract

Counterfeiting of medicines, also known as "falsification" or "adulteration", is the process in which the identity, origin, or history of genuine medicines are intentionally modified. Currently, counterfeit medicines are a global crisis that affects and is mostly caused by developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. These countries lack strict law enforcement against this practice and have low-income populations with medicinal needs. Lately, the crisis has escalated, impacting developed countries as well, e.g., the US and the EU, mainly via the Internet. Despite this extension, some current laws aim to control and minimize the crisis' magnitude. Falsification of medicines maintains an illegitimate supply chain that is connected to the legitimate one, both of which are extremely complex, making such falsification difficult to control. Furthermore, political and economic causes are related to the crisis' hasty growth, causing serious consequences for individuals and public health, as well as for the economy of different countries. Recently, organizations, technologies and initiatives have been created to overcome the situation. Nevertheless, the development of more effective measures that could aggregate all the existing strategies into a large functioning network could help prevent the acquisition of counterfeit medicines and create awareness among the general population.

3D Screen Printing Offers Unprecedented Anticounterfeiting Strategies for Oral Solid Dosage Forms Feasible for Large Scale Production

“…In 2022 there were 6615 pharmaceutical crime incidents, corresponding to an increase of 10% compared to 2021 [ 4 ]. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 10% of the global pharmaceutical trade [ 5 ] and as much as 25% in developing countries [ 6 ] involves counterfeit drugs. Some sources even state that in in parts of Africa and Asia, this figure exceeds 50% [ 4 , 7 ].…”

“…Highly prone to counterfeiting are anti-malaria drugs such as artesunate, where 30 to 50% of all packets bought in southeast Asia were fake [ 12 , 13 ]. Thus, the counterfeiting of pharmaceutical products is a global challenge [ 5 ]. According to the WHO definition, a counterfeit medicine is “A medicine that is deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled with respect to identity and/or source.…”