Counterfeit Medicine

According to a 2011 World Health Organisation fact sheet, all kinds of medicines, both brand name drugs and generics, have been counterfeited, from medicines for the treatment of life-threatening conditions to “everyday” painkillers and antihistamines.

Counterfeiting is greatest in some African countries and in parts of Asia and Latin America where government-managed regulatory and enforcement systems for medicines are weakest. In 2009, two Chinese people died and many more were hospitalised due to counterfeit diabeties-treatment medications. In the United Republic of Tanzania in the same year, an antimalarial treatment with absolutely no medicinal value was found in 40 different pharmacies. And there are more such stories, both known and unknown.

Industrialised countries are not completely free of the scourge and danger of counterfeit medicine, either, however. Drugs for fighting obesity, for treating mental illness and for lowering cholesterol – but without a sufficient quantity of active ingredient to be functional – have been found in the legal supply chain in the United States and the United Kingdom in the first years of the 21^st century.

RFID can help fight – and even stop – drug counterfeiting: RFID technology can be used to validate the origin of medicines. RFID can also be a vital part of track and trace systems as medicines are shipped. In this way, RFID can actively contribute to saving lives of people around the world.