Public Health, Not Drug Patents, at Issue as Counterfeit Medicines Grow

Counterfeit drugs are a growing problem around the world, particularly in developing countries where patients are the most vulnerable. Voice of America highlighted this serious public health issue, which was raised at a recent meeting of the WHO’s World Health Assembly. Reporter Vidushi Sinha discusses the dangerous consequences when counterfeiters attempt to circumvent drug patents, and the steps that some government and advocacy groups are taking to combat this problem. rnBelow is an excerpt from this important article. “Last month, representatives from all over the world discussed the dangers posed by counterfeit medicines at the World Health Assembly in Geneva. The problem is growing. The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that more than half of all medicines bought online are counterfeit. U.S. experts say there is no one solution. Last year, 84 infants died in Nigeria from tainted teething syrup. More than 2,000 times last year, counterfeit medicines caused illness and death, according to the Pharmaceutical Security Institute, a watchdog group. That's an increase of more than nine percent over 2008. Scott LaGanga, director of PhRMA, a leading pharmaceutical research and manufacturing company, says it's easy and profitable to sell look-alike, low quality drugs. "We are not all experts. And so we trust the supply chain to deliver the right product," he said. "In a lot of the parts of the developing world this trust could be broken and because it's become so profitable to distribute, sell, manufacture, a lot of these products that are of low quality, and substandard."