USAID launches programme to control counterfeit drugs

23 Nov 2009

Paul Chinnock

Source: Voice of America (see original article)
Source: USAID (see original article)

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Many aspects of health care are severely compromised by the large proportion of drugs on the market that that are faked or substandard products. In some parts of the developing world less than half the drugs available are genuine. The problem has been widely recognised for many years but action to address it has proved to be inadequate. USAID has now announced the launch of a $35-million, five-year programme that will assist countries in their efforts to stem the flow of fakes.

Drugs for infectious diseases are amongst those most often faked or produced in substandard form. As well as failing to provide effective treatment to those who take them, the low doses of the active agent, which they often contain, encourages the development of drug resistance. This is known to be a major factor in the development of resistance to antimalarials and to the antibiotics used for tuberculosis and other bacterial infections. Of particular concern currently are fake versions of drugs containing artemisinin, the drug now recommended for malaria treatment.

USAID’s Promoting the Quality of Medicines (PQM) programme will build on the existing Drug Quality and Information (DQI) programme, which the agency runs in partnership with the US Pharmacopeial Convention, (USP) a non-profit, non-governmental scientific organization that sets globally recognized standards for medicines and health care products. (Examples of DQI’s work so far are given in a USAID press release).

USAID says the new programme will: help countries strengthen their medicines regulatory bodies, increase the supply of good-quality medicines, reduce the availability of counterfeit and substandard medicines, and conduct global advocacy to raise awareness of the dangers of substandard and counterfeit drugs.

USAID’s Acting Assistant Administrator for Global Health, Gloria Steele said: “Substandard and counterfeit medicines represent a threat to public health worldwide but pose a particular problem in developing countries, where lack of financial, technical and other resources make it difficult to protect the drug supply chains ... Such medicines undermine decades of investments in public health”.