Summary
Ciprofloxacin was sampled from pharmacies in ten Central and South American cities. At least six per cent of the medicines are substandard or falsified. Sao Paolo, Buenos Aires and Montevideo have very few substandard or falsified medicines, whereas Asuncion and Caracas had considerably more. There are possible explanations for this, such as the latter cities having more unregistered products sold in pharmacies, but this is only a pilot study, without detailed analysis of the possible socioeconomic and legal causes. The study also only assesses a few cities and one medicine, a more detailed assessment would be useful to guide policymakers as to how to respond to this public health menace.
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By Roger Bate

A new peer review study by SMC authors is available this week - Paper. The paper in the American Journal of Health Economics is officially published on 20th July, but the correct proofs are now available (link to attachment). For those without the time to read the entire paper, read my summary published on the RealClearHealth news site - Summary Read More…