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. 2010 Mar;31(3):99-101.
doi: 10.1016/j.tips.2009.11.005. Epub 2010 Feb 1.

Impact of poor-quality medicines in the 'developing' world

Paul N Newton  1 , Michael D Green, Facundo M Fernández
Affiliations

Impact of poor-quality medicines in the 'developing' world

Paul N Newton et al. Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2010 Mar.

Abstract

Since our ancestors began trading several millennia ago, counterfeit and substandard medicines have been a recurring problem, with history punctuated by crises in the supply of anti-microbials, such as fake cinchona bark in the 1600s and fake quinine in the 1800s. Unfortunately this problem persists, in particular afflicting unsuspecting patients in 'developing' countries. Poor-quality drugs are a vital (but neglected) public health problem. They contribute to a 'crevasse' between the enormous effort in therapeutic research and policy decisions and implementation of good-quality medicines.

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References

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