By Julius Bizimungu
The WHO reports that 1 out of every 10 medicines in Africa is substandard or falsified.
These poor-quality products result in significant deaths annually.
A review of available several reports seem to suggest that lack of regulation and quality assurance has allowed a flourishing market of substandard, spurious, falsely-labelled, falsified and counterfeit (SSFFC) medical products to emerge in parts of the developing world.
According to WHO, SSFFC medical products are by their nature difficult to detect.
They are often designed to appear identical to the genuine product and may not cause an obvious adverse reaction, however they will fail to treat the disease or condition for which they were intended.
There is generally scarce information on the extent of quality and safety of medical products in African countries due to inadequate regulatory systems…Read more>>
