Fake medicines pose a threat to patient safety, as they are often manufactured in unlicensed, unregulated and often unsanitary sites, and it can be impossible to know what’s inside them without chemical analysis. They can contain the wrong dose of active pharmaceutical ingredient, the wrong ingredients or even harmful substances.
See the feature on fake medicines in Pharmaceuticals Policy and Law edition: “The Globalisation of the Pharmaceutical Industry” to learn why fake medicines present a risk to public health, what industry efforts are underway to mitigate the risk, and what more can be done.
