Falsified medicinal products
Facts
The practice of counterfeiting medicines and their illegal trade constitute a global problem for both highly-developed and developing countries, while the scale of the phenomenon is increasingly more widespread, which is a hazard for the safety and life of patients.
According to the World Health Organisation, as much as 1% of medicines sold in developed countries may be counterfeited, while it is estimated that falsified medicines available online constitute approximately 50% of products offered. On a global scale, counterfeited medicines may account for 10% of the global medicine market, while in some developing countries it may exceed 30% of medicines available for sale. The experience of the World Health Organisation and other organisations fighting against the illegal trade in medicines shows that the phenomenon of medicines falsification is escalating year by year.
The issue of falsified medicines in legal trade has not affected Poland so far – the tests of medicines collected from pharmacies, limited service pharmacies, and pharmaceutical wholesalers conducted by national laboratories have not demonstrated the presence of falsified medicines at those places so far.
Falsified medicinal products and illegal medicine trade – a real threat
Falsified medicines do not meet the quality requirements specified for particular medicinal products, they usually contain ingredients of worse quality and mixed in wrong proportions, contaminations, or other unapproved active substances with unknown safety of use – substances hazardous to health and life. It happens quite often that their composition is entirely different from the one declared on the package.
A serious problem is also distribution of medicinal products at unauthorized places, where illegally marketed medicines lose their original quality due to incorrect conditions of transport and storage. These products usually include medicines subject to medical prescription, the unattended administration of which can cause a serious and real threat to patients’ health and life.
EVEN SINGLE USE OF A FALSIFIED MEDICINAL PRODUCT MAY RESULT IN HEALTH IMPAIRMENT OR DEATH.
Which medicines are usually falsified?
Falsification may concern all kinds of medicines – both original and generic ones. Currently, products that are most frequently falsified are weight loss, erectile dysfunction medicines, and steroid hormones. However, medicines from other therapeutic groups are becoming more popular in terms of falsification, e.g. contraceptives or psychotropic drugs. There is also a tendency in highly developed countries to falsify specialised and expensive medicines.