Phung

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a counterfeit medicine is one, which is deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled with respect to identity and/or source. Counterfeit drugs may contain wrong active ingredients, wrong amounts of the ingredients or some times even no active ingredient(s) at all. Counterfeit drugs especially of life saving drugs result in death or disability.

Fake drugs or counterfeit drugs are becoming leading cause for disease resistance. The United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) states that 10% of all drugs sold in the global medicine market are counterfeit. According to WHO, 25% of the drugs consumed in developing countries are fake. The actually presence might be much more than the figures mentioned USFDA and WHO.

The reason for the alarming increase of counterfeit drugs may be due to derisory regulations, inadequate prosecution and penalties, and even may be due to the different distribution channel where the end user has little knowledge and look & feel about the product he is consuming.

To understand the consequences of fake drugs, one should have reliable and vital information. However, regulatory authorities, government and even pharmaceutical industries dont reveal the extent of counterfeit medicines because they fear that it may spoil their reputation. Until unless pharmaceutical industries and respective legislative authorities understand that the right information is very crucial, it is difficult to curb the menace of fake drugs.

Once the extent of the counterfeit medicines is known then all the major players of health care sector should take equal responsibility to totally eradicate fake drugs. All the stake holders should help their own way in tackling the problem. Government has to take certain drastic measures with respect to penalizing the persons who are involved in manufacturing counterfeits. The Government should take quick and stringent action against fake drug manufacturers. This could be done through raising the penalty levels and expediting with out much delay and even capital punishment if subsequent offence is reported.

Pharmaceutical industries manufacturing medicines should use anti-counterfeiting technologies (Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) Technology) which can prevent counterfeiters to come with a fake drug. Also it is the responsibility of the pharmaceutical companies to make customers aware about the counterfeits if any fake drugs available for their products. Medical associations may join hands with pharmaceutical companies to bring about the awareness among the public. Drug Regulatory authorities also should help in their own way to curtail the counterfeit drugs.