China plays "dreadful" role in fake drugs, think tank says

A senior member of a major US think tank has criticised China for playing a “dreadful” role in the spread of fake drugs.

Laurie Garett, senior fellow for global health at the US Council on Foreign Relations, denounced the actions of China in one of a series of articles in The Guardian on counterfeit drugs in Africa.

"Nobody has a head count – or a body count – on numbers of Africans that have died as a result. But China's role certainly has been dreadful," Garett said. A vice president at the US Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) also noted that China is taking longer to act against fake drugs than India.

The main thrust of The Guardian articles is that counterfeit drugs are hindering efforts to tackle malaria in Africa. National Public Radio has also looked at the issue in the past week, although its report focused on the impact of counterfeit antimalarials, notably artemisinin, in Myanmar.