Low-quality drugs, bane of developing countries

Washington, Aug. 12: Sale of substandard and falsified medicines — including those used to treat deadly diseases like malaria — are prevalent in the developing world, say scientists who found that 13 per cent of the sampled medicines in low and middleincome countries were below par.

When looking specifically at African countries, almost 19 per cent of the essential medicines that satisfy the priority health care needs of the population was found to fall in this category, according to a study by researchers from the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill in the US.

Falsified medicines are medical products that deliberately and fraudulently misrepresent their identity, composition or source.

Substandard medicines are real medical products that fail to meet quality standards or specifications for a variety of reasons, including poor manufacturing, shipping or storage conditions, or because the drug is sold beyond its expiration date.

Researchers analysed 96 previous studies of falsified and substandard medicines.

The team found that antimalarials and antibiotics were the medicines most commonly sold in substandard conditions.

In low-and middleincome countries, 19 per cent of antimalarials and 12 per cent of antibiotics are substandard or falsified.