1. COUNTERFEIT MEDICINE
Dr Indrajeet Kumar
.
Department of Community Medicine
M.G.M Medical College, Jamshedpur
Definition: “
Drugs/Medicines produced with an intention to
cheat a person are called counterfeit drugs.”
This includes/involves:mislabelling (includes false expiry date).
no active ingredients
a wrong ingredient
or correct ingredient in an insufficient quantity.

2. S
ub- s
tandard Medicine are genuine medicines produced by
legitimate (in accordance to law) that does not meet the quality
specifications that the producer says they meet.
e.g: they may contain less or more active ingredient than
written on package. This may not be an intention to cheat but
may be due to problems with the manufacturing process.
Most frequently counterfeited medicines are the expensive ones
eg: the hormones,
costly antibiotics,
anticancer drugs,
anti- tuberculosis drugs, etc.

3. E
xtent of the P
roblem:In global market it is 10%
Developing counties 25%
In some countries it is upto 50%
E
ffect: therapeutic failure or drug resistance,
in some cases death
F
actorsencouraging counterfeiting of drugs
:
A profitable business.
Absence of strong punishable legislation
Great price difference between identical products.
Internet based sales of pharmaceutical products.

4. Action to addres sub- s
s
tandard and Counterfeit medicines
:
S
trong legislation against manufacturing and sale of
counterfeit drugs.
Use of MARKE of authenticity e.g:S
RS
MScode on the back
of wrapper, QR code.
S
urveillance for fake and sub- standard drugs.
E
ducating patients and health workers.