Control de medicamentos falsificados y subestándar en países de baja renta: situación actual y perspectivas de futuro

Abstract

In middle and low-income countries, the percentage of substandard and counterfeit medicine are quite high. In some countries of Africa or Asia, the number of notifications of counterfeit antimalarials and antibiotics is high, but it doesn't correspond to reality because the culture, corruption, social and economic repercussions make it difficult for such notifications to be completed. Therefore, and since 2013, in the control of this type of medicine, different institutions of the Member States act together, whose main actions are based on strengthening measures such as intervention at borders, laws to punish criminals or ensure good training of personal, to prevent, detect and respond quickly and mitigate the socio-economic and public health effects that are generated. As a result of the intervention of the different organizations mentioned above, most of the substandard or counterfeit quality medical products can be detected with field devices that don’t require high economic costs or highly qualified personal (GPHF-MinilabTM or TruscanRM) and various analytical techniques such as thin layer chromatography or Raman spectroscopy.