Patient Safety Facts

Counterfeit medicines cause harm to patients because they are contaminated or substituted either with inactive or harmful substances. Less obviously harmful is the contamination with inactive substances, however the impact can be serious as the disease for which the patient is receiving treatment is not being treated adequately, which can lead to complications.

Many different products are subject to counterfeiting: expensive lifestyle and anti-cancer medicines, antibiotics, medicines for hypertension and cholesterol lowering drugs, hormones, steroids and inexpensive generic versions of simple pain killers and antihistamines.

The growing trend in Europe

In nearly all EU Member States, there were recent cases of counterfeit medicines entering the legal supply chain and being sold to patients through traditional outlets. EU estimates show that in the last 5 years, 27 cases of counterfeits were found in the legal supply chain and 170 cases in the illegal supply chain5. Counterfeit medicines are also increasingly being sold via the internet.

According to the European Commission, 560,000 counterfeit medicines were seized at the EU's borders in 2005, a 100% increase from 2004. For 2006, initial estimates suggest that the figure is over 1.5 million, a three-fold increase.

In 2008 the European Commission's Taxation and Customs Union Directorate-General published its 2008 statistics of Customs actions to enforce intellectual property rights at the EU's external border. The most significant increases were the following product categories:

Toys: +136%

Electrical equipment: +58%

Medicines: +57 %

In the developing world

In developing countries, counterfeit medicines for malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS are becoming increasingly common.

Comprehensive data on the impact of counterfeit medicines is still not available, however estimates range from around 1% of sales in developed countries to over 10% in developing countries. In some developing countries, it is estimated that 25-50% of the medicines market is counterfeit.

Counterfeit medicines arriving in Europe are most often produced in developing countries such as India, China, Thailand and exported into Europe.

Click here to play a video that documents the impact of counterfeiting.

We would like to acknowledge the contribution of the BBC and the International Children's Heart Foundation in the making of this film.
Please note, some viewers may find this footage upsetting.