Two types of drugs kill nearly 500,000 in sub-Saharan Africa each year

Nearly half a million people in sub-Saharan Africa die each year at the hands of two types of substandard or fake drugs, according to a new threat assessment report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. This includes 267,000 deaths a year from antimalarial medicines and another 169,271 deaths from antibiotics to treat severe pneumonia in children. The report says that high prevalence of infectious diseases coupled with challenges in access to health care, including affordability, means “demand for medical products and services is not fully met through formal channels” creating an opening for organized criminals involved in trafficking. The economic toll: The World Health Organization says it costs $12 million to $44.7 million to care for those who consumed falsified or substandard malaria drugs in sub-Saharan Africa. This also creates competition with drugs in the regulated, formal sector, serving as an “obstacle to the development of the pharmaceutical industry in the region.” Leaders have been working to build up the local manufacturing sector to ensure health security of populations after the continent was left in the lurch without adequate access to vaccines, therapeutics, and personal protective gear during the COVID-19 pandemic. African Union ramping up pressure: The African Union is working to establish the African Medicines Agency, or AMA, to improve regulatory harmonization of medicines across the continent which will work to counter fake medicines. It’s in the process of setting up its structures and will be hosted in Rwanda. In the meantime, the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization initiative is working to improve regulatory capacity.