Fake pharma news from around the world

Our round-up of counterfeit developments from around the world includes a crackdown on substandard medicine manufacturers in Bangladesh, efforts to curb Viagra counterfeits in Tunisia and Thailand and Nigeria's fake medicine prevalence.

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Bangladesh has revoked the manufacturing licenses of 16 companies implicated in the production of substandard and adulterated medicines, according to a report in Qatari newspaper Gulf Times. Another 14 drugmakers have been ordered to suspend production while the opening of another plant has been delayed until the owner can demonstrate compliance with the World Health Organization's good manufacturing practice (GMP) standards.

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Pfizer has launched its erectile dysfunction drug Viagra (sildenafil) in Tunisia in order to help reduce the exposure of the public to counterfeit versions of the drug, according to a report on tunisialive.com. There is reported to be a huge demand for Viagra in Tunisia which has driven a market for counterfeit copies as well as expensive imports, but Pfizer was unable to secure government approval to launch the genuine brand until March of this year despite first seeking the go-ahead in 1998. Viagra was finally introduced last month in collaboration with the Tunisian Central Pharmacy.

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Meanwhile, a state-owned drugmaker in Thailand is to start producing its own version of Viagra, once again to protect the public from counterfeit versions and make a cheaper alternative to expensive imported product more readily available. The Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO) is due to start selling its product - called Sidagra - next month, according to a report in Der Spiegel. The plan is to eventually export the product to other countries in southeast Asia.

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The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in Nigeria says that the prevalence of counterfeit medicines in the country has dropped from 40 per cent or more in 2001 to 6.4 per cent at present, according to The Nation newspaper. NAFDAC director Dr. Paul Orhii told the newspaper that the latest prevalence data was generated by the National Survey on Quality of Medicines, which made use of Thermo Scientific's TruScan to gauge the authenticity of medicine samples. The most affected drug class was antimalarials, which had a counterfeit prevalence of close to 20 per cent, according to Dr. Orhii.