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Somalia
Published in Salah Hassan, Kidd Michael, Family Practice In The Eastern Mediterranean Region, 2018
Mona Ahmed Almudhwahi, Abdihamid Ibrahim
Regulatory framework for the health sector: Weak regulatory frameworks and limited capacity of law enforcement contributed to the poor quality of health services. Counterfeit drugs imported from abroad are sold freely in the markets. Health-care institutions and professionals are not fully licensed and accredited.
Marketing Medicine
Published in Lenore Manderson, Elizabeth Cartwright, Anita Hardon, The Routledge Handbook of Medical Anthropology, 2016
Anita Hardon, Lenore Manderson, Elizabeth Cartwright
With an increasing number of producers of drugs in the global market, the circulation of counterfeit drugs has become an issue of global concern. In the following case study, Julia Hornberger shows how global programs against counterfeit medicines are implemented in a local police station in Johannesburg, and so how security, health and safety interplay. Hornberger describes the confiscation by police of cosmetic skin lighteners that they claimed were fake. The packaging of the products, with holograms, is designed to indicate authenticity. While these products are not medicines, they could well be so classified given their chemical compounds; if they were ‘real’ medicines, they would not be deemed safe. The sellers, three women, are held in a jail cell for a night and pushed to sign an admission of guilt, although the police could not file a case under the fake counterfeit medicines act because the products are legally considered cosmetics.
Global health futures?
Published in Kevin McCracken, David R. Phillips, Global Health, 2017
Kevin McCracken, David R. Phillips
The problem of counterfeit or fake medicines is of growing importance, as noted in Chapter 1: ‘Substandard/spurious/falsely labelled/falsified and counterfeit (SSFFC) medical products’, as WHO (2010c, 2016w) calls them. These can be deliberately and illegally mislabelled with respect to identity and/or source. This problem is widespread globally but very difficult to quantify, although it is particularly prevalent in some regions, often poorer countries where there is a strong demand for cheap, over-the-counter drugs from pharmacies, including certain countries in West Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and China. Counterfeit drugs may contain inert ingredients or excess amounts of effective drugs; they may even be poisonous. Drugs such as anti-malarials, anti-cholesterol, anti-diabetics, antibiotics and even anti-cancer medicines can be affected, and those for problems such as obesity and erectile dysfunction (e.g. Viagra) are especially commonly counterfeited. Generic or brand-name drugs may be involved. Depending on the type of drug, effects can range from merely ineffectual to lethal. All such drugs are unreliable and SSFFC medicines ('pharmaceutical crime') is now ‘a major threat to public health’ that is being pursued by the WHO, INTERPOL and others. INTERPOL notes that the rise of unregulated internet purchase of medicines increases the availability of SSFFCs, and they estimate counterfeit medical goods could form 30 per cent of the market in some parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Internet sales were targeted in a campaign in 2016 involving over one hundred countries, with the closure of websites and seizures of fake cancer medicines and counterfeit and illicit medical equipment, among other things (INTERPOL, 2016). A related but slightly different issue is ‘substandard’ and poorly stored and out-of-date drugs, which may lose their efficacy and, if they are antimicrobials, can add to the potential for AMR.
Investigation of black box drugs purchased from an online pharmacy
Published in Journal of Substance Use, 2019
Kelsie Watkins, O. Hayden Griffin, Elizabeth A. Gardner
While a sample size of three is quite small, it is still sufficient to demonstrate that ordering pharmaceuticals from rogue pharmacies is problematic and can result in obtaining counterfeit drugs and unapproved generic drugs. Each of the products in this study were purchased as a branded pharmaceutical product. In each case, a generic drug was received. Illicit online pharmacies often sell counterfeit drugs. Counterfeit drugs are defined as a drug that is mislabeled as to manufacturer, is an unapproved generic, contains a different active ingredient approved to treat the same condition, or contains no active ingredient. Counterfeits may also contain the right active ingredient but at the wrong dose. Furthermore, there is always the possibility that these drugs could include toxic contaminants (Almuzaini et al., 2013). The generic substituted for ACTOS, Piomore is an example of a counterfeit containing none of the active ingredient listed on the label.
All the players in the game: driving home the global commitment for legitimate drugs
Published in Drug Development and Industrial Pharmacy, 2018
To understand the problem, concepts must first be clear. Definitions on counterfeit drugs vary among agencies. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refers to counterfeit drugs as those sold under a product name without authorization [5]. In contrast, Pfizer describes counterfeit medications as those deliberately produced and/or mislabeled with respect to source and identity to make it appear genuine [4]. To more accurately distinguish between those manufactured under poor quality and those intentionally distributed under false circumstances or false composition, some agencies have moved away from the term “counterfeit” in favor of the terms “substandard” and “falsified” drugs [1]. Reading and interpreting these various perspectives can confuse and derail from the actual issue.
Inkjet dispensing technologies: recent advances for novel drug discovery
Published in Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery, 2019
Sina Azizi Machekposhti, Saeid Mohaved, Roger J. Narayan
Counterfeit drugs lead to significant human morbidity and mortality. You et al. reported a low-cost upconversion fluorescent 3D QR code for tracking drugs and finding counterfeit ones using the inkjet printer. This process involves two steps. First, a 3D QR code is printed on capsule using the inkjet printer. Second, the printed code on the capsules is identified by smartphones. They claimed that this technology could provide high throughput, high information capacity, and reliability for anti-counterfeiting applications [17]. Figure 10 shows 3D QR inkjet printing on capsules and drug identification by smart phone.