The Global Threat of Counterfeit Drugs, Spurious Drugs, and Protection Measures by New Technology to Identify Them - A Review

Sayantani Dey, Tapan Kumar Chaudhuri

Abstract: The problem of the spurious, adulterated, counterfeit drugs had become a massive problem in the medical society and hampering the patients? health condition. The problem of counterfeit drugs has caused a global health crisis and financial hardship in several countries. The marketing, availability, and usage of counterfeit drugs can have major negative effects on patients, including death. The pharmaceutical industry, governments, and international organizations that deal with health, commerce, customs, and excise have not worked closely together to tackle the incidence of counterfeit drugs, which appear to be increasing. According to the WHO the 10.5% of medicines are substandard or falsified. The value of this counterfeit drugs could be estimated around $200 billion(globally). The Indian pharmaceutical market is estimated to worth INR 40,000 crore each year due to counterfeit medicines. The WHO has made several suggestions and taken all practical measures to prevent counterfeiting. Public health is in grave danger due to the persistent risk of counterfeit drugs on the Indian market. In this situation all the organizations are taking effective measure to prevent from this massive problem. In this study, as a pharmacist it?s our responsibility to point out the fake medications and advising the general public to be aware. Here lastly, we will also discuss about some of the method which will be helpful to identify.

Keywords: Medical society, Effective measure, Financial hardship, Responsibility, Pharmacists, Organizations, Massive problem, Data