Big Problem

2000, an Interpol survey of major pharmacies in Lagos, Nigeria, discovered that 80% of the medicines on sale were fake. This extent of prevalence is consistent with WHO data that suggests that 25% of the medicines sold across the developing world are inauthentic copies containing little or no active ingredients. Such medication increases the resistance of pathogens to first-line medication and in many cases causes fatalities. In 2001 alone, 192,000 patients in China died after taking fake drugs according to empirical research.

Most analysts believe that the vast majority of counterfeit drug-related deaths and impairments go unreported and unrecorded. But even the few events that reach public attention reveal a situation that is harrowing in every aspect and detail.

In 1998, fake birth prevention pills led to 200 unwanted pregnancies. 75 Haitian children died soon after from the toxic effects of ethylene glycol that had made their way into fake anti-fever pharmaceuticals . In a chilling 1995 incident 195,000 people in Niger were inoculated with fake meningitis vaccine leading to disastrous consequences.