The health consequences of falsified medicines‐ A study of the published literature

Objectives To analyse and present the literature describing the health consequences of falsified medicines, focusing on mortality and morbidity, as well as the scale of the issue, the geographic extent, the medicines affected, and the harm caused at both the individual and population levels. Methods We searched for articles in PubMed, using pre‐optimized keywords ‘(counterfeit OR fake OR bogus OR falsified OR spurious) AND (medicine OR drug)’. Searches up to February 2017 yielded 2006 hits, of which 1791 were full‐length articles in English. Among them, we found 81 papers that qualitatively or quantitatively described 48 incidents in which falsified medicines caused patients to suffer serious adverse effects, injury, symptoms or death. Results The distribution of incidents was examined according to the economic status of the countries involved, regional location in the world, therapeutic category of the medicines, number of incidents and victims by year, and characteristics of the falsified medicines. Among the 48 reported incidents, 27 (56.3%) occurred in developing countries and 21 (43.7%) in developed countries. These incidents involved a total of approximately 7200 casualties including 3604 deaths. Conclusions Despite the poor quality of much of the reported data, the results of this study indicate that all types of medications have been targeted for falsification, and falsified medicines have had a serious impact on the health of both adults and children worldwide, with similar numbers of incidents in developing and developed countries. Objectifs Analyser et présenter la documentation décrivant les conséquences sur la santé des médicaments falsifiés, en mettant l'accent sur la mortalité et la morbidité, ainsi que l'ampleur du problème, l’étendue géographique, les médicaments touchés et les dommages causés à l’échelle individuelle et de la collectivité. Méthodes Nous avons cherché sur PubMed des articles en utilisant des mots‐clés pré‐optimisés “(contrefaçon OU faux OU fictif OU falsifié OU fallacieux) ET (médicament OU remède)”. Les recherches effectuées jusqu'en février 2017 ont donné lieu à 2006 résultats, dont 1791 étaient des articles complets en anglais. Parmi eux, nous avons trouvé 81 articles décrivant qualitativement ou quantitativement 48 incidents dans lesquels des médicaments falsifiés avaient provoqué chez des patients des effets indésirables graves, des blessures, des symptômes ou le décès. Résultats La répartition des incidents a été exa