Danger of substandard and falsified medical products is real and growing

Danger of substandard and falsified medical products is real and growing

SHOBHA SHUKLA, BOBBY RAMAKANT - CNS

In 2017, a report by the World Health Organization (WHO), "A study on the public health and socioeconomic impact of substandard and falsified medical products", showed that 10% of medical products in low- and middle-income countries were substandard or falsified, indicating substantial under-recording and a much larger problem confronting us.

"Estimated spending on substandard and falsified medicines in low- and middle-income countries (based on wholesale level sales) is over US$ 30.5 billion. The WHO estimates that between 70,000 to 170,000 deaths are caused by substandard and falsified antibiotics in children under 5 who were suffering from pneumonia per year," said Dr Philip Mathew, Technical Officer (AMR) at the AMR Awareness, Campaigns, and Advocacy team of the WHO in Geneva.

In the Indian state of Bihar, one of the biggest killers of people living with HIV (who have advanced HIV disease) are antimicrobial resistant bacterial infections like cryptococcal meningitis, said Leena Menghaney, a noted lawyer who is known for her stellar contribution towards helping improve access to essential medicines and healthcare services. "So, on one hand we have a large number of people who are directly adversely impacted by lack of access to medicines and on the other hand, we have those who are dealing with drug-resistant infections."

Equitable access to early and accurate diagnostics and prompt treatment with right medicines is a herculean and growing challenge, especially in the Global South countries. The challenge deepens considering that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is among the top 10 global health threats. AMR is fuelled by misuse or overuse of medicines in human health, animal health, livestock, poultry, and food and agriculture, due to which easy to treat common infections are becoming difficult to treat (or even incurable). To make matters worse, if diagnostics or medicines are substandard or falsified, it further jeopardises public health and social justice.

What is a substandard and falsified medical product?

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