Fake drugs traced by Oxford scientists
14 Feb 08
Scientists from Oxford University have helped to close down a major counterfeit drugs operation. Evidence provided by the scientists and INTERPOL led to the arrest of a man accused of dealing fake anti-malaria pills.
The World Health Organisation estimates that between 10 and 30 per cent of all medicines sold in many developing counties are counterfeit. As these drugs offer no protection from deadly diseases they are believed to result in the deaths of thousands of people every year.
Research led by Dr Paul Newton of Oxford’s Centre for Tropical Medicine identified pollen grains and minerals in counterfeit pills of the anti-malarial drug artesunate. A paper published in PloS Medicine describes how this enabled them to trace the origins of the fake medicine back to Yunnan province in China. Acting on information provided by the research team and INTERPOL Chinese authorities have arrested a man they believe to have traded 240,000 blisterpacks of counterfeit artesunate, which could leave as many as 250,000 people taking a fake medicine that has no effect on malaria.
Dr Paul NewtonIf malaria becomes resistant to artesunate the effect on public health in the tropics will be catastrophic.
Dr Newton said: ‘We coordinated the scientific forensic research and analysis of the packaging and, together with INTERPOL and the forensic scientists, pulled together the different strands of evidence to describe the criminal epidemiology of the fakes and where they may be coming from.’ The dossier of evidence was presented to China’s Ministry of Public Security who quickly launched a criminal investigation that led to the arrest.
Not only are the counterfeit pills useless as a treatment for malaria but they are potentially dangerous in another way: the tiny amount of artesunate they do contain, probably in an attempt to fool screening tests, could contribute to the malaria parasite developing an immunity to genuine doses of artesunate. ‘If malaria becomes resistant to artesunate the effect on public health in the tropics will be catastrophic,’ commented Dr Newton.