In many developing countries, including most African countries, as much as 60 percent of prescription drugs sold are actually counterfeit, containing little if any of the active molecule, and in some cases containing toxins and other harmful substances.
That's just one of the many frightening statistics that emerged from a conference last week in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, sponsored by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the benefit of government officials in the East African Region. IPI was pleased to be able to co-sponsor and participate in the conference.
Designed to help justice and customs officials intercept counterfeits and prosecute the perpetrators, the conference was a terrific example of cooperation between “north and south” in improving the health and welfare of East African populations.
Counterfeit drugs are a sort of “final insult” in poor and developing countries. It’s bad enough having to deal with poverty and lack of infrastructure. But that same lack of resources and infrastructure make poor populations easy prey for counterfeiters, who have developed surprising levels of sophistication, making it difficult or even impossible to distinguish between real and fake drugs
Most of the counterfeit drugs that have infiltrated the supply chain originate in India and China--countries keen on being recognized as having modernized their economies and welcomed as one of the world’s developed nations. But if India and China wish such acknowledgement, they need to take responsibility and do more about their growing reputations as sources of deadly counterfeit drugs that are contaminating the drug supply chains of countries around the world.
And there’s no reason to think that we in more developed countries are immune (no pun intended).
This is one reason why IPI opposes loosening rules to allow for more widespread importation (“reimportation”) of prescription drugs into the United States. It’s not just a “trade issue”—it’s a public health issue.
There has been a concerted effort on the part of some advocacy groups to downplay the risk of counterfeit drugs. These groups, which profit from criticizing the pharmaceutical industry, would like people to think that concern over counterfeiting is simply a drug company PR effort to protect them against generic competition.
But there’s a difference between a legitimate generic manufacturer and an organized crime syndicate that victimizes the sick and vulnerable by counterfeiting critical drugs needed to cure or mitigate diseases and relieve pain and suffering.
The former plays an important role in the economics of health care. The latter are criminals, and resources at the federal level allocated toward prevention, interception, and prosecution of counterfeiting are resources well-spent.