No Country is Immune From The Threat of Counterfeit Drugs.
No country is immune; counterfeit drugs were found in every continent and almost every country, from Australia to Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria, to Panama. According to the 2020 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report the primary countries from which adulterated pharmaceuticals originate are considered to be China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and India. Countries like India, Brazil, Indonesia, and Nigeria are known to have a high prevalence of counterfeit drugs. Online counterfeit and illicit drugs are also prevalent in India.
It is often perceived that because drug purchase is regulated strictly in developed countries, there is no risk of counterfeit drugs in these countries. This is a wrong perception. Counterfeit medicines have been found in street markets, legal supply chains like health care facilities, as well as illegal or unregulated websites in the US, UK, France, Italy, Germany, other EU countries, and Canada. The risk has enormously increased as more people are acquiring drugs from internet sites. According to a 2016 Kaiser Family Foundation survey, 8% of households in America–about 19 million people–obtained medication through non-U.S. online pharmacies or while traveling abroad.
