A consignment of fake anti-malaria drugs worth an estimated N10 million (approximately R500,000) was seized recently by the Nigerian National Agency of Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

Fake drugs do not cure patients’ ailments. Usually they contain little if any active ingredient and often contain chemicals that not only fail to treat the underlying ailment but also cause direct harm to the patient. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that counterfeit drugs constitute 10 per cent of the global drug market, rising to 25 per cent in developing countries and estimated to be worth approximately $75 billion worldwide. However, due to the very nature of counterfeiting where much of the trade goes undetected, the problem is likely to be more severe.

Counterfeit drugs that contain some, but not enough active ingredient are of particular concern because they increase the probability of resistance emerging to good quality drugs. They have the potential to render an entire class of drugs useless and introduce serious long-term implications for our ability to fight disease.

In the case of anti-malarial treatments there are few remaining drugs. The once highly successful malaria treatments, chloroquine, sulphadoxine pyrimethamine (SP) and mefloquine, have all been rendered completely useless as a result of wide-scale resistance. Even the most highly effective treatment, a drug called artemisinin, which is based on the age-old Chinese herbal treatment derived from the Artemisia annua plant, is now also showing signs of reduced efficacy.

In the Pailin area of Cambodia, patients given artemisinin take twice ...