If you’re considering buying medicine – perhaps because you’re living overseas and don’t have access to NHS services – it’s vital to be aware of the dangers posed by counterfeit medicines, as Dr Sneh Khemka, medical director of Bupa International, explains.

Counterfeit medicines are illegal, immoral and, in some cases, dangerous. Today, more people than ever put their health at risk by purchasing them.

Up to 15 per cent of all drugs sold worldwide are fake, and in some parts of Africa and Asia the figure exceeds 50 per cent. This illegal trade, which has been spurred by growth of the internet over the last decade, is predicted to generate US$75bn in revenue this year alone. It’s a monstrous moneymaking industry that has successfully infiltrated every corner of the globe.

Counterfeit medicines are medicines that are produced illegally with intent to deceive the purchaser in some way. The labelling, information leaflet and packaging may look almost identical to the real version – so much so that very few people would be able to tell the difference. The same applies to the appearance of the medicine itself – but not to the content. Fake drugs can contain anything from inactive or ineffective ingredients to mixtures of toxic substances.

The truth is that if your medicine has come from an unknown source, you may be risking treatment failure or even death.

A large proportion of the world’s counterfeit medicines originate in Asia, particularly China. Across the country, between 50 and 85 per cent of some drugs are fake and kill up to 300,000 people each year. At present, the State Food and Drug Administration of China doesn’t regulate the production or trading of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), so it’s difficult to contain the problem. This has an impact on countries all around the world, as huge batches of fake drugs are shipped out to be sold for profit. For example, in December 2009, at the height of the H1N1 flu pandemic, US customs officials seized more than 50 shipments of counterfeit Oseltamivir (the antiviral drug for H1N1 flu).

So confident have counterfeiters become in their abilities that they have now moved on from just producing lifestyle drugs, such as those for erectile dysfunction, to replicating life-saving medications like the main cholesterol-lowering blockbusters and even some cancer drugs. Because of the recent surge in counterfeit cancer drugs, the US Food and Drug Administration is urging consumers not to fall for bogus claims made by the illegal distributors. False and misleading statements often include ‘non-toxic’, ‘doesn’t make you sick’ and ‘treats all forms of cancer’.

And the trade doesn’t stop at fake cancer treatments. There are even medicines available on the internet advertised as ‘miracle drugs’ for medically incurable diseases. Although this is clearly exploitative behaviour, it can often be very difficult for authorities to shut down these illegal outlets, because the contact details they provide are as fake as the medicines they supply.

So, to buy or not to buy counterfeit medicines? That really is the question. The best advice I can give is to use your judgement when you buy medicines and bear in mind that ‘all that glisters is not gold’; that is, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Further information about Bupa International is available at www.bupa-intl.com