Inequalities in health care: Problems related to the diffusion of counterfeit medicines

Inequalities in health care: problems related to the diffusion of counterfeit medicines Francesca Tarditi2, Francesca Baratta1,2 and Paola Brusa1,2 1Department of Scienza e Tecnologia del Farmaco, University of Turin, Via Pietro Giuria 9, 10125 Torino, Italy 2Aid Progress Pharmacist Agreement onlus, Via Pietro Giuria 9, 10125 Torino, Italy This study addresses the theme of inequalities in health care on the phenomenon of the diffusion of counterfeit medicines, which have characteristic insufficient to ensure quality, safety and efficacy. The counterfeiting of medicines mainly affects Developing Countries (DCs): this problem is not new but it is certainly underestimated and often ignored. The phenomenon of counterfeit is described here through the analysis of the developments of regulatory system and the study of some medicinal products commercialized in DCs. The problem of fake drugs is a consequence of the lack of rules in the pharmaceutical field that are harmonized in the international contest and is an increasingly widespread phenomenon. DCs represent an area where health as fundamental right is not always guaranteed. In Africa this is shown in the acts of the First African Medicine Regulatory Authorities Conference of 2005 from which it is clear that the regulatory system of medicines has several weaknesses: in many sub-Saharan African Countries medicines are imported or produced without appropriate monitoring of their quality. A.P.P.A.® Project, coordinated by Aid Progress Pharmacist Agreement no profit organization, is an example of a concrete answer to the spread of counterfeits through the realization of laboratories for the preparation of galenic essential medicines.