Widely available counterfeit medicines – which may be ineffective or even toxic – has become a global problem, largely because of the Internet, and is a real danger for patient health, reports [s]Health24[/s], citing a report from pharmaceutical company [b]Sanofi[/b], which claims that up to 30% of the medicines circulating in Africa are counterfeit. While some online pharmacies are legally-established, in certain countries as much as 96% of the websites offering medicines are believed to be operating in blatant defiance of the law. ‘These sites offer prescription medicines without requiring a prescription and sell unapproved or falsified products,’ says [b]Sanofi’s[/b] Dr Rashem Mothilal, medical director for SA.
[link url=http://www.health24.com/Medical-schemes/News/Up-to-30-of-all-medicines-in-Africa-are-fake-20140619]Full Health24 report [/link]
[link url=http://en.sanofi.com/Images/33151_DP_Counterfeit.pdf]Sanofi report[/link]