ArticleThe journal of medicine access
Tackling the global impact of substandard and falsified and unregistered/unlicensed anti-tuberculosis medicines.
Article in The journal of medicine access. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Substandard and Falsified Medicines, Regulatory Capacity and Public Health: A Narrative Review With a Focus on Africa.Public health challenges · 2026Review
- Magnitude of poor multidrug-resistant tuberculosis treatment outcome among multidrug-resistant tuberculous patients at tertiary hospital, South West Ethiopia.Annals of clinical microbiology and antimicrobials · 2025Article
- Medicine quality assessment in Nepal using semi randomised sampling and evaluation of a small scale dissolution test and portable Raman spectrometers.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- A Cost-Effective Liquid Chromatography Method with Ultraviolet Detection for Identity Screening and Assay of Injectable Antibiotics.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Substandard and falsified medicines in Africa: healthcare systems challenges, supply chain issues, regulatory challenges and strategies to increase access to quality medicines.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Review
- Community pharmacy professionals' knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward substandard and falsified medicines and associated factors in Bahir Dar City, Northwest Ethiopia.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Substandard antibiotics and their clinical outcomes among hospitalized patients in southern Malawi: a pilot study.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Estimated prevalence of unregistered and falsified medicinal products in Malaysia: a nationwide cross-sectional study conducted from March to November 2023.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2025Article
- Interactions between CNS and immune cells in tuberculous meningitis.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- Estimating the prevalence of poor-quality anti-TB medicines: a neglected risk for global TB control and resistance.BMJ global health · 2023Article
- Burden of and factors associated with poor quality antibiotic, antimalarial, antihypertensive and antidiabetic medicines in Malawi.PloS one · 2022Article
- Quality of antiretroviral, antimalarial and antituberculosis medicines in Zambia: Findings of routine post-marketing surveillance.The journal of medicine accessArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Substandard and falsified (SF) medicines are a global health challenge with the World Health Organization (WHO) estimating that 1 in 10 of medicines in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are SF. Antimicrobials (i.e. antimalarials, antibiotics) are the most commonly reported SF medicines. SF medicines contribute significantly to the global burden of infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This article discusses the challenges associated with the global impact of SF and unregistered/unlicensed antimicrobials with a focus on anti-TB medicines. Tuberculosis (TB) is the 13th leading cause of death worldwide, and is currently the second leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, ranking after COVID-19 and above HIV/AIDS. Specifically in the case of TB, poor quality of anti-TB medicines is among the drivers of the emergence of drug-resistant TB pathogens. In this article, we highlight and discuss challenges including the emergence of SF associated AMR, patient mistrust and lack of relevant data. We also present study reports to inform meaningful change. Recommended solutions involve the adaptation of interventions from high-income countries (HICs) to LMICS, the need for improvement in the uptake of medication authentication tools in LMICs, increased stewardship, and the need for global and regional multidisciplinary legal and policy cooperation, resulting in improved legal sanctions.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.