How to identify and detect spurious medicines

Introduction

Spurious medicine is a major issue, causing serious medical harm. According to WHO, this is widespread and approximately. 10% of global medicines are fake, causing over a million deaths each year and endangering patient safety.

Consuming spurious medicines poses two risks:

• First, the materials used in these fake drugs may, by themselves, be harmful.
• Secondly, the desired treatment itself will be ineffective and further worsen the illness due to delays and leading to serious consequences.

Some tips to safeguard against Spurious medicines:

The spurious medicine makers are increasingly becoming sophisticated and making it more difficult to distinguish spurious from genuine medicine. The pharma industry is trying to find ways to make it more difficult. In the meantime, we can try to safeguard ourselves by taking the following steps.

• Buy medicines from reputable chemists, licensed pharmacy chains and pharmacies you know personally. Buy from a single pharmacy, and they will keep your regular medicines stocked. They are likely to follow safety regulations and provide genuine products. Insist on a bill for medicines you buy.

  
• Be cautious if the drug's price seems unusually low. Counterfeiters may offer lower prices to attract buyers. Buying from unknown online or unverified sources can appear economical, but could be counterfeit.

  
• Check the printed information. Verify the name of the manufacturer/brand, marketing agent, batch number, manufacturing & expiry dates, name and strength of the salt, storage instructions, and QR/barcodes on both primary (internal) and secondary (external) packaging. Watch out for unfamiliar details, inaccurate, or missing information.

  
• Be cautious if the medicines look unusually soft, crumbly, damaged, wet or different from your previous purchases. Look for broken seals, incorrect logos or tampering with packaging. Pay attention to any unusual odours or tastes.

  
• Verification: Some medications come with unique codes that can be verified via SMS, as well as QR codes that can be scanned for authenticity details directly from manufacturers.

  

Do not accept alternate brands without verifying. Please check with your doctor or verify on the website, and ensure the alternative medicine is from a reputable company. Always consult a healthcare professional when in doubt.