The USD 75 billion counterfeit drug industry has now gotten a new lease of life via online sales. And now with more and more people opting for self medication and buying medicines on the net without proper checks, is forcing drug majors worldwide to invest heavily in combating counterfeit.
That is the reason global drug firms like Sanofi have invested heavily in setting up hi-tech package scanning and chemical assay labs, and to seek government’s help to nab culprits.
Every year 7,00,000 people die from consuming fake TB and malaria drugs and not from the disease.
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This doesn't stop at branded prescription drugs. Even common medicines and over-the-counter drugs like Paracetamol, Crocin, Combiflam, Avil, Norflox among others have multiple counterfeits in the market.
With the World Health Organinsation (WHO) estimating that nearly 10% Of drugs sold worldwide are counterfeit, the menace is widespread, especially in countries with weak regulatory oversight.
While the African continent takes the lead, China and India, with large drug export bases are considered key sources of this illicit drug traffic followed by Latin America.
Not only ineffectual for treatment, counterfeit drugs can be actively harmful too. Sampling of these drugs is difficult and a smart packaging makes it difficult for even experts to spot the difference.
Caroline Atlani, head - anti-counterfeit coordination, Sanofi said: “First we have to create awareness related to fake drug and then we initiate technical co-operation to improve detection. Then we share information to ensure that police will do the job in identifying these criminals and dismantling these clandestine labs.
However, Sanofi is not alone in this fight, even US drug maker Pfizer, for instance has one of the largest anti-counterfeiting project around its USD 2billion pill for erectile dysfunction - Viagra. Cheaper fake versions of Viagra generate almost as much revenues as the branded one.
Drug firms globally have used mobile applications to scan barcodes, holograms and watermark technologies like Vignet to help detect fake drugs.
However, the biggest problem now seems to be online shopping that's provided a huge boost to this illicit trade.
According to WHO estimates, over 50% of the medicines purchased online today are counterfeit.
“We are working with Google, payment platforms like Visa, transport companies such as DHL and other key players on internet commerce. It is very important that they are in the loop and are collaborating to ensure that tomorrow we get safe medicines online,” said Atlani.
Closer home, where over 20% of the drugs sold are counterfeit or sub-standard, the drug regulator has also raised its scrutiny and is sharpening its punitive measures too.
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