In a snapshot definition, a counterfeit drug has no active ingredient or contains harmful substance and is intentionally and fraudulently mislabeled as representation of a genuine brand or generic medication. These commonly include expired drugs often remarketed with new expiration dates or dilution of medications to increase quantity or manufacture of fake, spurious and substandard drugs labeled with misleading information. Its effects can cause serious damage that goes beyond harming individual patient to society. And true to form, it is growing at an alarming rate particularly in the developing world.
Although monetary estimates of counterfeit drug market is approaching well above US$75 billion per year worldwide, over 75% is in the developing world with the African continent accounting for the highest consumption followed by East Asian countries. Kenya is a giant actor both as a source of supply to the rest of the continent and a huge consumer market. In Kenya, pharmaceutical and medical regulations are scantly evident, weak and at its best unreliable.
At the backdrop of lackluster regulations severed by corruption, pharmacy owners, operators, importers, exporters and local drug makers are thriving and laughing all the way to their bank accounts in a sad trade of poisoning and preying on innocent Kenyan public.
Pharmacies in Kenya are rarely manned by trained personnel. According to Kenya Pharmacy and Poisons board quarter page policy, to operate a pharmacy, there are two critical elements from professional stand point; there should be a registered pharmacist and duly inspected premises with a license registered under the pharmacist. Usually, the former is conspicuously absent and the later explicitly hangs somewhere in the pharmacy accruing leased income for the pharmacist.
Pharmacist rent their licenses to the owners of drugstores knowing pharmacies licensed to them are managed and operated by unskilled pharmacy personnel. This is an act that extends beyond moral and ethical issue and certainly teetering at criminality given the fatal consequences it may lead to. And yes, the Pharmacy and Poisons board is often aware of this business. Negligence at the board level and illegal trade in pharmaceutical licensing is the most important underpinning factor providing counterfeiters with the opportunities they need.
When you purchase a medication from a drugstore in Nairobi for a simple ailment such as cold, there is high chance you will suffer a great deal from taking the drug. Paradoxically, the natural progression of the illness is never interrupted by the medication at all.
A cold medication is usually meant to suppress your symptoms until such a time your body’s immunity cleanse it all. But in your honest pursuit to relief yourself of nuisance cough, dripping nose and teary eyes you buy a 12-pill pack imprinted with Cold-Relief. You take this medication and nothing happens.
Indeed your symptoms manifest deeply and intensely – Constant hacking cough teetering at loss of consciousness, your nose too runny and too tender to wipe, sneezes nearly exploding the eardrums and your eyes red hot. What happened to the cold relief therapy?
