30% of medicines in Latin America are falsified: health risks

During 2024 more than 10 tons of illegal medications in Peru. Among these we find syrups, capsules, injectables and clandestine production machinery that participate in the market to the detriment of citizen health.

Carlos Aliaga, a member of the Medical Committee of the Pharmaceutical Laboratories Association in Latin America (Alafal) warns that the falsification of medicines is not only a health problem but also public safety.

“We are seeing how mafias perfect their methods, which makes it more difficult to detect these illegal products without advanced technology,” he noted.

Metropolitan Lima reached a marketing rate of counterfeit drugs of 71.7% between 2015 and 2019 – in data from the National Health Institute. Inside, Tumbes, Madre de Dios, Loreto, Puno and Tacna have also been mapped as critical areas for the traffic of these products in clandestine apotheticas.

In itself, the problem is not only Peruvian, but also regional. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 30% of the medications sold in Latin America are counterfeit. On a global scale, the bambas drug industry moves up to US $ 432,000 million a year and generates more than half a million deaths.

Social networks and digital platforms have fed the commercialization of counterfeit medications to the point that are imported from abroad and sold to the public despite containing dangerous substances or inactive ingredients.

“The danger is that these products can contain toxic substances, from corn starch to rats. Its consumption can be ineffective in the best of chaos or the worst, mortal, ”says Dr. Aliaga.

According to WHO and Alafal, counterfeit medications can aggravate diseases instead of healing them and not controlling the crisis, 2050 would be 10 million deaths a year. And, on the economic side, low and medium -sized income countries waste US $ 30.5 billion in these products of bad origin.