Counterfeit and Substandard Healthcare Medicine and Products: An International Problem

In this chapter I examine the proliferation of counterfeit, substandard and unlicensed ‘medicine’ and healthcare products. I start the chapter highlighting how difficult it is to distinguish between counterfeit medicine and substandard medicine. Both are harmful, and the corruption of medicine can occur anywhere in the developmental and production process. It is therefore sometimes difficult to establish if poor quality medicine, that is harmful, is an act of corruption or inadequate production processes. To emphasize this matter, I examine one nation–Nigeria–and its anti-corruption measures to reduce and prevent ‘poor quality’ medicine reaching the healthcare market. I then highlight how substandard medicine is a problem for all nations regardless of how sophisticated it’s internal ‘management’ of medicines and conclude with a view that medicine in the healthcare sector is subject to routine corruption within and across borders, and as such is an international problem.