Call for global action to prevent spread of counterfeit artesunate
An international group of researchers is calling for global efforts to prevent the spread of counterfeit artesunate — an antimalarial drug — in an article published in the Public
Library of Science this week (2006;3:197).
The call comes after the death of a 23-year-old man in Myanmar last year.
The man was diagnosed with uncomplicated hyperparasitaemic falciparum
malaria and treated with oral artesunate but later became unconscious
and died. The medicine was subsequently analysed and found to contain
10mg of artesunate per tablet, rather than the 50mg a genuine tablet
would have contained.
“
There are now at least 12 different types of fake artesunate, classified
by the sophisticated counterfeit holograms that are affixed to the blister
packs,” say the researchers. Evidence suggests that production
is on an industrial scale and from multiple sources, they add.
The researchers warn that western tourists who purchase the drug in foreign
countries as stand-by treatment may be at risk of buying counterfeits.
They also highlight that subtherapeutic amounts of artesunate in fake
tablets could result in the emergence and spread of resistance to artemisinin-type
drugs.
One way to prevent the spread of fake artesunate in Africa, the researchers
suggest, is to ensure that artemisinin derivative-based combination therapies
provided through the private sector are relatively inexpensive and locally
affordable so there is no financial advantage to look elsewhere and unwittingly
purchase a fake. This would require some form of central subsidy, they
say. |
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Pharmaceutical Journal
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