Fake Drugs Menace: India among Worst Offenders

Bangalore: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has come up with a new name for counterfeit medicines, namely, the substandard, spurious, falsely labelled, falsified and counterfeit (SSFFC) medicines. As per different reports the size of the global fake drugs industry could be worth billions of dollars, reported Ullekh NP for ET Bureau. Health economist Roger Bate, who is also the author of the book Phake is of the opinion that countries like India and China are at the vanguard of selling fake drugs locally and globally.

Further, numerous reports quoting the WHO say that up to 20 percent of the drugs sold in India are fake. As per a report by International Protection Network, fake tuberculosis and malaria drugs are estimated to kill 700,000 people annually. The report adds that most fake drugs come from India and China.

Prafull D Sheth, a former president of the Indian Pharmaceutical Association has done a survey for the WHO on India's counterfeit medicines in 2007 and was quoted by the ET, saying, "Unfortunately, media reports have a multiplier effect and the situation in India is clearly blown out of proportion." Talking of the difference between fake and substandard drugs, he says, the former is far more dangerous than the latter.

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