High levels of counterfeit drugs in Papua New Guinea?

A small sampling study of anti-infective medicines in Papua New Guinea has found that 100 per cent of the drugs tested failed to meet quality control or authenticity testing.

The findings provide further evidence of the scale of the counterfeit and substandard drug problem in "lower income countries where product information and drug regulation enforcement are scant or absent," according to the researchers from Goethe University in Germany.

The study examined 14 samples of an antibiotic (amoxicillin) and antimalarial (amiodaquone) purchased from five registered pharmacies in Port Moresby, the country's capital.  None of the 14 samples met the testing criteria, which focused on visual inspection, quality control tests, and verification of product authenticity.

"Two products, one of which was purportedly distributed by a company which proved to be nonexistent, contained no detectable amodiaquine," note the authors of the study, which ran on the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences website on June 30, ahead of publication.

"This quality problem with anti-infective products is of great concern, as it not only exposes patients to poor quality products but also fosters the development of resistant bacterial strains," they conclude.