ASEAN’s reputation as a hub for fake medicine is nothing to sneeze at.
Increasing amounts of falsified medicines are being produced in ASEAN, in part as a result of legitimate, and illegitimate, pharmaceutical producers based in India and China having transferred or outsourced some manufacturing processes to Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia to avoid tougher regulations and enforcement – and to benefit from lower production costs – according to a recent report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
With nearly half of the anti-malarial medicines tested in Southeast Asia found to be fraudulent, the problem is gaining more attention both regionally and nationally.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte last year ordered the police to clamp down on fake medicine manufacturers and sellers, and the issue was also raised at last month’s ASEAN Health Ministers’ Meeting in Cambodia where Cambodian Defence Minister General Tea Banh pointed out that substandard and counterfeit medicines was openly advertised and sold online.
In full: https://theaseanpost.com/article/fake-medicine-giving-asean-headache
