17th Jan 12
Fake malaria drugs could risk millions of lives
by Sally Davies
Just say no: many fake malaria drugs thought to come from China
Just say no: many fake malaria drugs thought to come from China
Poor quality and fake anti-malaria drugs are acting as a threat to attempts to control the disease across Africa and may result in millions of lives being put at risk, warn scientists.
The counterfeit medicines have the potential to harm patients as well as promote drug resistance among parasites of malaria, states the study which the Wellcome Trust funded. The disease is believed to lead to around 800,000 deaths per year. Some of the counterfeit tablets are thought to have been produced in China.
The researchers, from the Wellcome Trust-Mahosot Hospital-Oxford University Tropical Medicine Research Collaboration, had their work published in the Malaria Journal. They studied fake and substandard malaria drugs which were on sale in 11 countries in Africa between 2002 and 2010.
It was discovered that some of the fakes had a mixture of the incorrect pharmaceutical ingredients that would initially alleviate malaria’s symptoms but would not be able to cure it. Some ingredients in the pills could cause serious side effects, found the study, particularly if they were taken by a patient who was also on other drugs, such as anti-retrovirals to fight HIV.
The malaria parasite is able to, after time, develop resistance to the medicine being used to cure it. This has happened previously with drugs such as mefloquine and chloroquine.
The researchers have warned that the counterfeit drugs have the potential to lead to the same thing happening with artemisinin, currently one of the most effective medicines used to treat the disease. They claim that small amounts of artemisinin derivatives are placed in some of the fake products to make sure they pass authenticity tests.
But at the level which it is present, these tablets are unlikely to help the body to get rid of the malaria parasites, although could enable them to develop resistance to artemisinin, warns the study. The fake drugs’ Asian origin was identified by using traces of pollen discovered in some of the pills.
Dr Paul Newton, the study’s lead researcher, called on African governments to take urgent measures to tackle fake anti-malarials. He said that failure to take any action would put the lives of millions of Africans at risk, particularly pregnant women and children.
Dr Newton went on to say that the enormous investment which has been put into the evaluation, development and deployment of anti-malaria drugs all goes to waste if the drugs which patients end up taking are, due to carelessness or criminality, of poor quality and unable to cure.
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