Fighting Substandard and Falsified Medicines with Rapid Screening Technologies

Up to two billion people around the world lack access to necessary medicines, and this vacuum is all too often filled by substandard and falsified products. World Health Organization (WHO) has identified this issue as one of the urgent global health challenges, given that more than one in ten medicines in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) are estimated to be substandard or falsified. No country remains untouched.

Substandard and falsified medical products may cause harm to patients, fail to treat the diseases for which they claim to be intended, lead to loss of confidence in the health systems, and contribute to Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). Substandard and falsified medicines are often designed to appear identical to the genuine product, and by their very nature are difficult to detect. However, many can be detected and identified by simple and inexpensive screening technologies which are currently emerging.

This workshop will present both current technologies used for this purpose, and also new, emerging developments in this field. Experiences in the use of screening technologies, especially in LMICs, will be shared, and the training needs for the proper use of these technologies will be discussed.