Mobile technology offers option to combat fake drugs in West Africa

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Cholera, malaria and the rapidly expanding threat of Ebola have hit African countries with a related health-care problem: the scourge of fake drugs.

An increasing number of West Africans, however, now have the option to use mobile applications to identify counterfeit medications, thanks to collaboration between national drug regulatory bodies and telecom and pharmaceutical companies.

Unlike governments’ efforts to achieve the same goal by strengthening drug-supply chains and constantly investigating drug sales, the mobile technology being used in recent initiatives lets end users directly determine the status of the drugs they want to purchase.

Source: PCWorld (link opens in a new window)

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Health Care, Technology