Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. E-mail: tmackey ucsd. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Counterfeit medicines are a global public health risk. We assess counterfeit reports involving the legitimate supply chain using — data from the Pharmaceutical Security Institute Counterfeit Incident System PSI CIS database that uses both open and nonpublic data sources.
Of the 1, identified CIS reports involving counterfeits, Further, The most prevalent therapeutic category was anti-infectives Geographically, Asian and Latin American regions and, economically, middle-income markets were most represented.
A total of Improvements in surveillance, including detection of security breaches, data collection, analysis, and dissemination are urgently needed to address public health needs to combat the global counterfeit medicines trade. One of the most complex and challenging problems faced as a result of the globalization of health-care delivery is securing the integrity and safety of the global medicines supply chain.
Dangerous forms of pharmaceuticals are illicitly sold by criminal elements and illegal transnational organizations creating patient safety and public health dangers that undermine public and private investments in health care. Yet, despite recognized dangers to global public health, reports compiled by public and private stakeholders including law enforcement, regulatory agencies, manufacturers, and customs officials show that the scope, production, distribution and sales of substandard, spurious, falsely labeled, falsified, counterfeit medicines SSFFC continues to increase.
Reports from other international and professional organizations including the United Nations UN Office of Drugs and Crime, World Health Organization WHO , Institute of Medicine IOM , and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, have also detailed increasing challenges to safeguarding the global medicine supply chain, yet exact figures on the true scope of the problem remain elusive.
