Universidad de Costa Rica

School of Economics

School of Public Administration

Customs Administration and Foreign Trade

English for Administration and Commerce III

Made by:

Noelia Delgado Ureña C19010

Kevin Montero Monge C14956

Kendall Mora Mora C15123

Wendy Sánchez Ardón C17221

Teacher: Kristell García Robinson

I Cycle, 2023

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Introduction

In this assignment will be addressed issues such as the damage caused by

counterfeit medicines in our society, the main reasons why people use this class of
medicines if they are often aware of how harmful they can be to their health. This
class of counterfeit drugs are increasingly seen as more similar to the originals, to
provoke people to consume them.

Based on the article written by Vaibhav Gaur, Himanshu Sankrityayan and

Jaideep Gogtay provide us with different important data on how many people die or
are disabled by ingesting these altered drugs; can be seen later the percentage of
the regions most affected can be observed. In this type of case, the World Health
Organization is constantly intervening to eliminate this class of medication from the
market. In accordance with the issue of the COVID-19 pandemic, the WHO, to avoid
any type of imitation of its vaccines, is issuing a precautionary alert regarding
possible false vaccines, since many people would be affected by this problem.

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 Tackling Counterfeit Drugs

Development

It is true that counterfeit medicines are a serious problem that affects both the
health of individuals and the economy of countries. The availability of counterfeit
medicines has increased due to globalization and online commerce, which has
allowed counterfeit products to be widely distributed.

Counterfeit drugs can involve different levels of danger. Some counterfeit

drugs contain the wrong ingredients or in the wrong amounts, which can make them
ineffective or dangerous to health. In the worst case, counterfeit drugs may contain
toxic or harmful ingredients that pose a serious risk to those who consume them, the
body builds up resistance to antibiotics by consuming lower quality products.

In addition to posing a health hazard, counterfeit drugs also have a significant

economic impact. Counterfeit products are often sold at lower prices than authentic
products, which can negatively affect legitimate pharmaceutical companies and the
healthcare system in general. In addition, governments lose revenue due to tax
evasion associated with the trade in counterfeit medicines.

Strong regulations and effective quality control systems in the manufacture,

distribution and sale of medicines are essential to address this problem.
Governments and international organizations are working collaboratively to
strengthen legislation and law enforcement related to counterfeit medicines. Tracking
and authentication technologies, such as barcodes, security labels and electronic
tracking systems, are also being implemented to help identify and prevent
counterfeiting. Within the world of counterfeiting according to studies conducted by
Pathak, R (2023), the most affected countries are developing countries, according to
WHO data 1 in 10 medicines are counterfeit products.

When Covid-19 came into force, there was a significant increase in counterfeit
pandemic supplies, with products such as vaccines, masks, gloves, disinfectants,

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diagnostic kits, among other products that collapsed in sales at the beginning of
Covid-19.

One of the main causes of the large increase in counterfeit products was the
decision of countries to close borders and with them all export trade, leaving many of
the countries that depended on these supplies in severe shortages.

In addition, it is important to raise public awareness of the risks associated

with counterfeit medicines and to promote the purchase of medicines only from
reliable and authorized sources. Educational campaigns can help inform consumers
on how to identify counterfeit products and encourage the reporting of illegal
activities.

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Conclusion

Counterfeiting of medicines is not a recent problem, it has existed for many

centuries. This problem over the years has only grown and expanded to different
areas of the world, making this problem more serious for people. The countries most
affected by counterfeit medicines are the least developed countries, such as those
on the African continent, making Africa the most affected by counterfeit medicines.

There are different types of counterfeit medicines, as they are not only based
on pills or antibiotics, they will always want to counterfeit any existing medicine.

This situation has generated a negative impact at a global level, what stands
out the most is the economic impact it has had on society, both for the consumer and
for companies, which is why companies have chosen to take more measures to
avoid this situation but the problem of document forgery needs strong support from
countries, countries like the United States and India have implemented laws to
prevent forgery and severely punish counterfeiters.

Due to these problems and the impact it has had and has on society. Caused
by this, the World Health Organization (WHO) has implemented different measures
in order to regulate counterfeiting, but none of this will be solved if all countries do
not implement the necessary measures and in a society as unequal as today. ,
where there are developed countries and non-developed countries, the way in which
all countries regulate in the same way becomes impossible, which is why the
counterfeiting of medicines will continue to increase.

Bibliography

Pathak, R., Gaur, V., Sankrityayan, H. et al. Tackling Counterfeit Drugs: The
Challenges and Possibilities. Pharm Med (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40290-
023-00468-w

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