The report, titled “Prevalence of Substandard, Falsified, Unlicensed, and Unregistered Medicines and Associated Factors in Africa: A Systematic Review,” is the result of research conducted by a team of scientists from Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia. Their study meticulously analyzed and consolidated data from 27 national studies conducted across various African countries.
The results are devastating: out of a total of 7,500 drug samples examined, 1,639 failed at least one quality test, proving to be substandard or counterfeit. The phenomenon varies drastically from country to country: while in Gabon only 0.5% of the examined drugs were found to be non-compliant with quality standards, the situation in Malawi is catastrophic, with a prevalence of substandard or counterfeit medicines reaching 88.4%. Ghana and Togo are not far behind this dire scenario, with percentages of 75%.
This dangerous black market of adulterated medicines is not limited to a few categories. Antibiotics, antimalarials, antihelminthics, and antiprotozoals are the drugs most frequently found to be substandard or counterfeit, fueling a healthcare crisis of increasingly vast proportions.
The causes of this emergency are multiple and intertwined: weak local regulations governing drug distribution, uncontrolled growth of free trade, inadequate product registration, and rising demand for medicines in a region ravaged by endemic diseases and poor health conditions. Poor import standards also allow dangerous pharmaceutical products to infiltrate the already fragile healthcare systems in the region.
Claudia Martínez, research director at the Access to Medicine Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, described the results as “an urgent public health crisis.” “When patients are given substandard or completely falsified medicines, not only can the treatment fail, but it risks causing preventable deaths,” she stated with concern.
The consequences of this problem are tragic. According to data released in 2023 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), counterfeit and substandard medicines are responsible for approximately 500,000 deaths annually in sub-Saharan Africa. This dramatic figure represents only the tip of the iceberg of a crisis that threatens to claim more lives if urgent measures are not taken.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines counterfeit medicines as those whose identity, composition, or source has been deliberately or fraudulently altered to deceive the consumer. However, substandard medicines present equally dangerous issues: incorrect dosages, unstable or ineffective active ingredients, and inadequate storage conditions that severely compromise their efficacy.
Behind these scientific labels lies a terrible reality: men, women, and children are being denied their fundamental right to health. They receive medicines that, instead of curing them, worsen their suffering. Africa, already battered by poverty, disease, and conflict, is now trapped in a silent war against an invisible but lethal enemy: counterfeit medicines.
