The Danger of Substandard Drugs in Emerging Markets: An Assessment of Basic Product Quality

Background: Increasing competition generally decreases product prices, but in the case of pharmaceuticals, this is only beneficial if competitor products are therapeutically equivalent. This study analyzed drug samples from countries with emerging economies, assessing them for basic quality.Results: Removing all obvious and suspected counterfeit products and degraded products, 1912 samples remained. 3.8% failed basic quality control tests performed with the Global Pharma Health Fund e.V. Minilab. 5.2% failed product authentication by raman spectrometer. Africa has a greater problem with substandard products than any other location.Conclusions: Since all of the sampled drugs are used to treat potentially lethal infections, it is important that the threat of these substandard products be more widely recognized.