Fake Drug Pipeline Undercuts Malaria Progress

The Wall Street Journal examines the global trade in fake, counterfeit and otherwise substandard  malaria medication, in which China and particularly Guangzhou’s African community appear to play a  substantial part. From Benoît Faucon, Colum Murphy and Jeanne Whalen: When customs officials in Luanda, Angola, searched a cargo container from China, they found something hidden inside a shipment of loudspeakers: 1.4 million packets of counterfeit Coartem, a malaria drug made by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG.  The discovery, last June, led to one of the largest seizures of phony medicines ever. The fakes—enough to treat more than half the country’s annual malaria cases, had they been genuine—are part of a proliferation of bogus malaria drugs in Africa that threatens to undermine years of progress in tackling the disease. China’s foreign ministry said the country “has always attached great importance to drug safety and resolutely combats the…manufacture and sale of counterfeit medicines.” The ministry added that it is “not aware” of evidence that any fake Coartem found in Africa came from China.

 

 http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/05/fake-drug-pipeline-undercuts-malaria-progress/