preview

Types Of Poor Quality Medicines

Decent Essays

Types of poor quality medicines : Poor quality medicines can be classified into three different man types : substandard , counterfeit and degraded. Substandard medicines “are genuine medicines produced by legitimate manufacturers that do not meet the quality specifications that the producer says they meet. For example, they may contain less (or more) active ingredient than written on the package. This may not e an intention to cheat, but may be due to problems with the manufacturing process”.(WHO, 2005). Counterfeit medicines are “deliberately and fraudently mislabelled with respect to identity and / or source. Counterfeiting may include products with the correct ingredients or with the wrong ingredients , without active ingredeients, with insufficient active ingredient or with fake packaging”(Wondemagegnehu, 1999). Degraded medicines may result from exposure of good quality medicines to light , heat, and humidity . it can be difficult to distinguish degraded medicines from those that left the factory as substandard , but the distinction is important as the causes and remedies are different(Keoluangkhot et al., 2008). Prevalence of poor quality of medicines Despite evidence suggesting that substandard, counterfeit, or degraded medicines are major problems of global importance, there are few reliable data describing their epidemiology. Only 5- 15% of the 191 member states of the WHO report cases of counterfeit medicines.(Paul N. Newton et al., 2006). Many data have

Get Access
Get Access