Fighting Fake Drugs With Miniscule Printed Watermarks: An Ingenious Idea

It is extremely difficult to tell how many people lose their lives due to counterfeit drugs every year globally. Estimates vary between hundreds of thousands to over a million. No matter which figure is correct, falsified medication and substandard drugs are causing significant losses in human lives. The share of counterfeit drugs is around 10% globally. It is as high as 30% in some countries, while it stays below 1% in others. I am sure you can guess that the one-digit numbers belong to the richest countries, while the big figures are typical in Sub-Saharan Africa. But before you lean back assured, let me remind you: fake drugs are getting a thing in the Western world too! More on it a little later. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), fake malaria drugs alone could be responsible for 270,000 deaths in Africa every single year. The dangers of fake or substandard drugs are obvious: sick people lose time while waiting to recover after taking the fake pills. Instead of reaching out for medical help, they are assured they are on track to get better. In some cases, fake drugs ‘only’ do nothing. In other cases, they are actually harmful, making the patient’s prospects even worse. And while people trust the tablets they took, malaria is damaging their bodies. Oftentimes to a degree that their lives cannot be saved by the time they get actual medical treatment. No money? No medication! And the lack of genuine malaria remedies is only the tip of the ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: TMF Forecast Future of Pharma fake drugs counterfeit medicine watermarks QR code substandard drugs Source Type: blogs