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. 2011 Dec;8(12):e1001139.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001139. Epub 2011 Dec 6.

The primacy of public health considerations in defining poor quality medicines

Paul N Newton  1 , Abdinasir A Amin, Chris Bird, Phillip Passmore, Graham Dukes, Göran Tomson, Bright Simons, Roger Bate, Philippe J Guerin, Nicholas J White
Affiliations

The primacy of public health considerations in defining poor quality medicines

Paul N Newton et al. PLoS Med. 2011 Dec.

Abstract

Paul Newton and colleagues argue that public health, and not intellectual property or trade issues, should be the prime consideration in defining and combating counterfeit medicines, and that the World Health Organization (WHO) should take a more prominent role.

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Conflict of interest statement

PN and NJW have scientific collaborations with the Enforcement Working Group of IMPACT, and NJW is co-chair of the WHO malaria treatment guidelines committee but none of the authors have shares in pharmaceutical companies or works as a part of IMPACT. NJW is a member of the PLoS Medicine Editorial Board. The Wellcome Trust had no role in the writing or decision to submit this viewpoint for publication, except for the involvement of CB as an author. BS is co-founder of MPedigree, which is a non-profit based in Ghana that advocates for the development of strategies to fight counterfeiting. All other authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. A Venn diagram illustrating public health–oriented definitions of poor quality medicines.
“Poor quality medicines” is a term inclusive of counterfeit, substandard, and degraded medicines and also for medicines that fail chemistry analysis but with insufficient information to determine whether they are counterfeit, substandard, or degraded. The available data do not allow relative sizing of the area of each circle in proportion to the frequency of type of poor quality medicine. There could be grey areas between all three main types (see Text S1). For example, both substandard medicines and counterfeits could become degraded after manufacture.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Wellcome Trust. Opinion formers' conference on counterfeit medicines: perspectives and action. 2009. Available: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/stellent/groups/corporatesite/@policy_communic.... Accessed 10 October 2011.
    1. Fondation Chirac. The Cotonou Declaration. 2009. Available: http://www.fondationchirac.eu/en/the-cotonou-declaration-october-12-2009.... Accessed 10 October 2010.
    1. Newton PN, Green MD, Fernández FM, Day NJP, White NJ. Counterfeit anti-infective medicines. Lancet Infect Dis. 2006;6:602–613. - PubMed
    1. Newton PN, McGready R, Fernandez F, Green MD, Sunjio M, et al. Manslaughter by fake artesunate in Asia–will Africa be next? PLoS Med. 2006;3:e197. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030197. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Newton PN, Green MD, Fernández FM. Impact of poor-quality medicines in the ‘developing’ world. Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2010;31:99–101. - PMC - PubMed

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