- The continent is main hub for the trade in counterfeit medicines, as organised criminals seek to exploit fragile states to import, manufacture, traffic and sell falsified medicines.
- Antimalarials and antibiotics are among the most commonly reported fake products. The average global antimalarial failure rate is 47%.
Falsified and Substandard Medicines
Good health is impossible without access to high-quality, affordable medicines
Millions of Africans are deprived of the benefits of advances in modern science and medicine.
- Millions of people and children die from preventable diseases.
- Worldwide, an estimated two billion people have no access to essential medicines.
Sources of poor-quality medicines
Poor-quality medicines can be both falsified and substandard.
- Falsified medicines are deliberately fake medical products. Criminals manufacture, traffic and sell fake products to unsuspecting customers.
- Substandard medicines can be the result of poor manufacturing and quality-control practices in the manufacture or distribution of the product.
Murder by Medicine
Poor-quality medicines lead to death and illness.
- Both fake and substandard medicines pose a threat to public health because they can lead to death, additional illness in individuals, the spread of disease within a community and antibiotic resistance.
- The link between the traffic in falsified medicines and organised crime has been well established by intelligence services and law enforcement agencies. They are smuggled onto markets using the same routes and techniques as drug, weapon, or human trafficking.
- Transnational organised crime also funds terrorism, destabilising countries and weakening state structures.
