Why researchers say fake and low-quality drugs are a ‘global pandemic’

Fake and substandard drugs are responsible for tens of thousands of deaths around the globe each year, and the persistent lack of reliable medicines in poor countries threatens to roll back decades of efforts to combat malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and other conditions, researchers said Monday.

“The pandemic of falsified and substandard medicines is pervasive and underestimated, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where drug and regulatory systems are weak or non-existent,” Jim Herrington, a University of North Carolina public health professor who co-edited a collection of articles on the topic published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, said in a statement.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/04/20/why-researchers-say-fake-and-low-quality-drugs-are-a-global-pandemic/