NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, June 1, 2015

New research released recently has indicated that substandard medicines are more prevalent than fake ones in world’s most malaria-burdened country, Nigeria.

A rigorous analysis of more than 3,000 antimalarials purchased in Enugu, Nigeria found 9.3% to be of poor quality, according to new research published in PLOS ONE.

Researchers found 1.2% of the samples to be falsified and 1.3% to be degraded, but raised bigger concerns about 6.8% being of substandard manufacture, leaving patients at risk of not receiving the correct treatment dose and potentially contributing to the development of resistance to the main drug used to treat malaria.