The global threat of counterfeit drugs: why industry and governments must communicate the dangers

Abstract

The production of substandard and fake drugs is a vast and underreported problem, particularly affecting poorer countries. Cockburn and colleagues argue that the pharmaceutical industry and governments must both take action

Figure 1. The Number of Investigations of Possible Counterfeit Drugs by the FDA Has Been Rising

(Figure: Margaret Shear, Public Library of Science, adapted from [39])

Figure 2. Genuine and Fake Guilin Pharma Artesunate Blister Pack Holograms Found in Mainland Southeast Asia

(A) is the genuine hologram attached to the blister packs of the genuine Guilin Pharma artesunate. The red arrow points to a legend stating “GUILIN PHARMA”, which is visible with the naked eye as a thin strip below the waves, but can only be read with a microscope (letters are about 0.1 mm high). (B) is a fake artesunate blister pack hologram: the upper red ring shows that the hologram has crescents, rather than a continuous blank line, between mountain and waves, and the lower ring shows that there is no “GUILIN PHARMA” legend. (C) is also a fake artesunate blister pack hologram: the red ring shows that the “GUILIN PHARMA” legend is present but the letters are of larger font than those on the genuine hologram and can be read with the naked eye (letters are about 0.3 mm high). A warning sheet giving more details and photographs is available in [47]. (Photos: Paul Newton, Wellcome Trust SE Asian Tropical Medicine Research Units)

Figure 3. Poster Advertising the Second Global Forum on Pharmaceutical Counterfeiting

(Figure: Ian Lancaster, Reconnaissance International)

A collection of counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs seized by the NAFDAC in Nigeria

(Photograph: NAFDAC/International Chamber of Commerce Counterfeiting Intelligence Bureau)