Financial Times: Sanofi leads charge against counterfeit drugs
“…Falsifying medicines — making and selling products that have not been approved by regulators, fail to meet quality standards, or deliberately misrepresent an ingredient — has become big business. The World Health Organization estimates that revenues from counterfeiting of medicines are around $200bn, 10-15 percent of the pharmaceutical market worldwide. … Pharmaceutical companies are working with national and international authorities including the U.N., the WHO, Interpol, and customs officers to seize suspect medicines…” (Agnew, 12/3).

Reuters: Poor regulation, dodgy pills spur plan for African drugs agency
“…The low bar for criminals pushing dodgy drugs in Africa is just one reason why the continent needs to up its game in medicines regulation. … Health care experts, who met in Ghana last week to push the case for coordinated drug oversight in Africa, have a lofty ambition to create an African Medicines Agency (AMA) by 2018. It would be modeled on the 22-year-old European Medicines Agency (EMA) but cover twice as many countries and 1.2 billion people. Considerable practical and legal problems must be overcome…” (Hirschler, 12/4).