Cambodia Campaigns Against Counterfeit Medicines With Aid from USP Drug Quality and Information Program
USAID and DQI Release Public Service Announcements in Regional Initiative
To Increase Public Awareness
The U.S. Pharmacopeia Drug Quality and Information Program (DQI) announces the official launch of the “Pharmacide” public service announcement (PSA) campaign against counterfeit medicines in Cambodia. Coinciding with this launch, the PSAs will be nationally televised on the Cambodian television channel TV3. A ceremony marking the event will take place:
MetaHouse
Street 264, #6, Sangkat Chaktomuk
Khan Daun Penh (South of Wat Botum Pagoda)
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Hosted by MetaHouse (www.meta-house.com), the event will include screenings of the PSAs and a short documentary on counterfeit medicines produced by USP DQI, and a question-and-answer session for the national and regional press.
DQI developed the “Pharmacide” PSAs in 2008 in collaboration with Living Films Thailand and Khmer Mekong Films, with financial support from the USAID/Cambodia Mission’s Office of Public Health, as a key strategy to combat counterfeit medicines in Cambodia and the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). Translated in five regional languages, the PSAs will be broadcast in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Vietnam as part of a regional initiative to increase public awareness about the proliferation of counterfeit and poor quality medicines. The three-part PSA series is one component of DQI’s global program to provide technical assistance and support for medicine quality monitoring and capacity building for the pharmaceutical sector in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Counterfeit and poor quality medicines proliferate in the pharmaceutical markets throughout Cambodia and the GMS, and can contribute to drug resistance or adverse reactions in patients, including protracted illness and death. Oftentimes, counterfeit medicines are manufactured to look like the “real” medicine, yet contain little or no active pharmaceutical ingredient, or may even be another unrelated adulterated product. Most patients are unable to discern the difference; it requires complex testing to determine a medicine’s authenticity. According to recent data collected in Southeast Asia, up to 10-15% of some medicine products may be counterfeit.
About DQI:
The Drug Quality and Information (DQI) Program, which is supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the U.S. Pharmacopeia, focuses on the healthcare needs of people in developing countries. DQI has established a presence in USAID-priority countries on four continents advancing strategies to improve medicine quality and the appropriate use of medicines. USP seeks to improve the health of people around the world through public standards and related programs that help ensure the quality, safety, and benefit of medicines.
For more information about the launch ceremony or about the DQI program, please contact:
Christopher Raymond, Project Coordinator for Southeast Asia
USP DQI – Bangkok
chrisr@kiasia.org
www.uspdqi.org
USP DQI Medicines Quality Monitoring Activities
in the Greater Mekong Subregion
Ensuring access to good-quality essential medicines, especially in the developing world, requires commitment from individual governments, health staff, consumers, and other involved stakeholders. The United States Pharmacopeia Drug Quality and Information Program (USP DQI) has closely collaborated with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Regional Development Mission for Asia (RDM-A), the USAID/Cambodia Mission, and the Ministries of Health of Cambodia, Thailand, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Vietnam, and Yunnan Province in China to fight the devastating effects of counterfeit and substandard medicines readily available in the Mekong Region.
In the Southeast Asia/Western Pacific area, an estimated 10-35% of medicines are improperly made or illegally produced and sold. The objective of the USP DQI medicines quality monitoring program is to reduce the prevalence of poor-quality medicines–counterfeit and substandard–available in the public (hospitals, health clinics, and posts); private (hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies); and informal (illegal outlets) sectors.
In 2003, USP DQI launched the Antimalarial Medicines Quality Monitoring Program in the Mekong Subregion. Sophisticated laboratory facilities are rarely available in the field, so USP DQI teaches simple, practical methods for early detection of substandard and counterfeit drugs. In addition to basic tests, USP DQI has also designed sampling protocols and advanced testing techniques as well as trained staff to collect medicines for analysis and record and report data.
Data collected in 2004 revealed the wide availability of poor quality medicines: in some Mekong countries, up to 44% of artesunate (a commonly used, highly efficacious antimalarial) samples contained no active ingredient. In 2008, this figure dropped to below 20%. From the 358 antimalarial samples collected and tested, only 40 (11.2%) samples failed quality testing.
In five years, the Mekong Region monitoring program has grown from 17 to 37 active sentinel sites and expanded from collecting only antimalarials to medicines for HIV/AIDS, TB, and avian influenza, as well as commonly used antibiotics. Since monitoring began in 2003, over 4,700 samples have been collected and tested.
USP DQI has supported and encouraged collaboration among the Ministries of Health, other country Ministries, and enforcement-related agencies to act on medicines that fail quality testing. Through information gleaned from the USP DQI monitoring program, countries have fined sellers of counterfeit medicines, closed pharmacies, confiscated products, and issued regulatory warnings and notices to alert health professionals and the public. The data was also used in collaborations with WHO and INTERPOL (Operation Jupiter in 2006 and Operation Storm in 2008) to investigate counterfeit medicines manufacturers and trade routes, which resulted in arrests and seizure of over $9.3 million of counterfeit products.