What is the true cost of counterfeit drugs?

Submitted by Aspergillus Administrator on 28 June 2012

The World Health Organization’s International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce (IMPACT) estimates that fake pharmaceuticals make up one per cent of drug sales in developed countries and approximately 30% in some countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Counterfeit and substandard drugs kill over 100,000 people per year and may indirectly cause the death of nearly 1 million patients.

There is already a great degree of activity in the industry to help boost pharma security, reduce counterfeiting and ultimately protect patient safety and companies’ bottom lines, and one growing trend is the use of serialisation systems. Cold Chain IQ editor Andrea Charles recently spoke to economist and author Roger Bate about the cost of counterfeit and substandard medicines to the global economy, where the greatest of counterfeiting threat comes from and the financial impact serialisation initiatives will have on the pharma industry.You can listen to the interview here:

The Financial Impact of Serialisation on the Pharmaceutical Industry

Sumit Dutta
Cold Chain IQ

PS Interested in learning more?

Read “Understanding the Importance of Cold Chain as Part of the Bigger Picture”
with Mohamed Nasser, MD, Eli Lilly Saudi Arabia for more.

Also read: Document written by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on quality control of pharmaceuticals (available in multiple languages)


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