Drug Counterfeiting: Key Factors Affecting Vulnerable People in the World

Drug counterfeiting has been a major problem for the government and regulatory agencies since the beginning of the 20th century. Most of the drug counterfeiting reported is in countries where a high demand for drugs combines with poor surveillance, quality control, regulation, and education to make it easy for criminals and cartels to supply it to the market through illegal sources. These fake medications are frequently produced in hazardous conditions, with insufficient, excess, or no active ingredients, and/or by using potentially harmful and even fatal chemicals. Counterfeit drugs mostly affect vulnerable sections of society due to their social and economic conditions. Some critical factors, such as insufficient or no health insurance coverage, disparities with racial and ethnic minorities, government policies, low income, lack of education, and uncontrolled online pharmacies, tend to attract them towards counterfeit drugs. This article explains the key risk factors of counterfeit drugs operating in legal environments and reviews recent adverse cases in the pharmaceutical supply chain.