Ethiopia: Laying foundations to fight substandard and falsified medicines

Work is underway to ensure every medicine in the country has a unique identifier with a proper barcode. This will be a foundation of the country’s fight against falsified and substandard medicines.

Substandard and falsified medicines represent a real and growing risk to patient safety. The sheer complexity of the pharmaceutical supply chain makes it a difficult issue to stamp out. At best, any patients who ultimately use a substandard or falsified medicine will find it does not treat their condition. At worst, these products can cause actual harm.

In Ethiopia, a national study conducted in 2013 suggested 7.8% of medicines in the country were substandard, meaning they failed to meet quality standards and specifications. Various data since then has also identified products which are falsified, meaning they deliberately misrepresent their identity, composition or source.