ArticleBMJ open2018
Economic cost of substandard and falsified human medicines and cosmetics with banned ingredients in Tanzania from 2005 to 2015: a retrospective review of data from the regulatory authority.
Article in BMJ open, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Health, Economic, and Social Impacts of Substandard and Falsified Medicines in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review of Methodological Approaches.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2023Pooled it
- Rapid Identification of Counterfeit Biopharmaceuticals using Portable Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy.AAPS PharmSciTech · 2026Article
- A Comprehensive Assessment of Quality of Antimalarial Medicines in Mainland Tanzania: Insights from Five Years of Postmarket Surveillance.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2024Article
- Off‑label and unapproved pediatric drug utilization: A meta‑analysis.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2024Article
- Strengthening regulation for medical products in Tanzania: An assessment of regulatory capacity development, 1978-2020.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Reliability and validity of an innovative high performing healthcare system assessment tool.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Improved knowledge on substandard and falsified (SF) medical products through a dedicated course for pharmacy students at three universities in sub-Saharan Africa.BMJ global health · 2023Article
- Tanzanian primary healthcare workers' experiences of antibiotic prescription and understanding of antibiotic resistance in common childhood infections: a qualitative phenomenographic study.Antimicrobial resistance and infection control · 2021Article
- Development of a lateral flow dipstick for simultaneous and semi-quantitative analysis of dihydroartemisinin and piperaquine in an artemisinin combination therapy.Drug testing and analysis · 2019Article
- Improving access to medicines to reduce marketing and use of substandard and falsified medicines in Africa: Scoping review.The journal of medicine accessArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo estimate the economic cost of substandard and falsified human medicines and cosmetics with banned ingredients in Tanzania from 2005 to 2015.
designA retrospective review of data.
settingTanzania Food and Drugs Authority and premises dealing with importations and distributions of pharmaceuticals. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Confiscation reports of substandard human medicines, falsified human medicines and cosmetics with banned ingredients. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Quantities and costs of pharmaceutical products, costs of transportation, storage, court cases and disposal of products.
resultsThe economic cost of substandard and falsified human medicines and cosmetics with banned ingredients was estimated at US$16.2 million, that is, value of substandard medicines US$13.7 million (84.4%), falsified medicines US$0.1 million (1%), cosmetics with banned ingredients US$1.3 million (8%) and other/operational costs US$1.1 million (6.6%). Some of the identified substandard and falsified human medicines include commonly used antibiotics such as phenoxymethylpenicillin, amoxicillin, cloxacillin and co-trimoxazole; antimalarials such quinine, sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, sulfamethoxypyrazine-pyrimethamine and artemether-lumefantrine; antiretroviral drugs; antipyretics and vitamins among others.
conclusionThe economic cost of substandard and falsified human medicines and cosmetics with banned ingredients represent a relatively large loss of scarce resources for a poor country like Tanzania. We believe that the observed increase in the quantities and the economic cost of these products over time could partly be due to the improvement in the regulatory capacity in terms of human resources, infrastructure and frequency of inspections.
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