Counterfeit Medicines in Socioeconomic Perspective
Abstract: Counterfeit
medicines potentially reach 70% of the global drug markets, and the largest
proportion is found in developing countries. Increasing public awareness of
counterfeit medicines will automatically affect the demand for counterfeit
medical products that will finally reduce counterfeit medicine activities.
However, raising awareness of the dangers of counterfeit medicines is a
challenging task because public health professionals need to consider diversity
of social, economic and educational factors. This study examined peer-reviewed
journal articles, media reports, official government and non-government reports.
As many as 179 papers (1990 to 2014) were retrieved to identify the
relationship between Human Development Index (HDI) of the USA, Japan, Brazil,
Iran, Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan and Nigeria, and the type of counterfeit
medicines. An electronic search was conducted using the following databases,
such as Medline, Scopus, CINAHL, Embase, Google Scholar. Counterfeit disease
curing medicines are found in high varieties most likely in countries with low
HDI. At the same time, medicines for lifestyle are not solely found in
countries with high HDI, but also exist in low to medium HDI.
Keywords: Counterfeit
medicines; disease curing medicine; human development index; lifestyle of drug
use; public health
Author: Desy Nuryunarsih
Journal Code: jpkesmasgg170017
