Countering COVID-19 Counterfeiting
While there is no agreed upon numerical value for the scale of counterfeit medicines on the global market, estimates range from under $100 billion to over $400 billion in annual sales, there is global agreement that the costs to public health are resoundingly detrimental. Not only do mislabeled, weak, inactive, and poisonous counterfeit medicines directly impact the health and well-being of the individuals relying on them for their therapeutic benefits but they also pose a significant danger to global public health by increasing drug resistance to medicines that are fighting infectious diseases – such as tuberculosis, malaria, and pneumonia. Studies estimate that fake anti-malarial and tuberculosis drugs cause up to 700,000 deaths per year and counterfeit pneumonia drugs kill around 150,000 children annually.
With less resources to devote to substantial regulation and oversight, and the cost of legitimate drugs beyond the reach of much of their population, low-income nations are regularly plagued with counterfeit products and the devastating consequences that follow. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 10-30% of drugs sold in low- and middle-income countries are fake or substandard. While strong/stringent mechanisms are in place to ensure the quality, safety, and effectiveness of medicines/medical products distributed in high-income countries like the United States and parts of Europe, counterfeiters have continued to vex regulators albeit at a much lower prevalence (~1%). However, when COVID-19 hit, as with many other aspects of life, it highlighted all the cracks in the system proving that the medical product supply chain is globally interconnected/interdependent and that no one is beyond the reach of profit-hungry counterfeiters.
At the height of the pandemic in 2020 there was a confluence of factors that came together to generate a global shortage of life-saving personal protective equipment (PPE). To meet unprecedented demand and the urgency to protect frontline healthcare workers, hospitals and vendors were driven to look for PPE beyond their trusted networks and consider high-volume purchases from nontraditional brokers and manufacturers. This provided a path for counterfeiters to bypass the secure medical product supply chain and opened the floodgates to a deluge of counterfeit PPE. The multinational manufacturing conglomerate 3M Company has tracked the seizure of over 41,000,000 counterfeit respirators alone. This influx of counterfeit PPE illustrates how vendors, donors, and end-users must remain extra vigilant in vetting and testing medical products, even under extreme demand pressure. As the pandemic continues to ravage various parts of the globe, counterfeiters sophistication is growing to include fraudulent COVID related medical products, test kits and vaccines. Without effective and vigorous countermeasures these fake products can hinder the world’s effort to emerge from the pandemic.
Join us for PQMD’s Pillar Talk on Countering COVID-19 Counterfeiting. During the discussion our panelists will detail the growth, depth, and evolution of COVID-era counterfeit medical supplies; the impact this has on world-wide health systems and global public health efforts; and dig into counteractive measures that can be taken to deal with this global scourge.
