WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials are making a high-tech screening device available to African authorities to help spot counterfeit malaria pills in hopes that the technology may eventually be used to combat the fake drug trade worldwide.
The Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday that regulators in Ghana will begin using a federally developed handheld device to screen for fake or diluted versions of two common malaria pills.
More than a third of malaria-fighting pills used in Africa and Asia are either fake or bad quality, according to a study released last year. Rampant drug counterfeiting has undermined efforts to fight the mosquito-borne disease, which causes fever, chills and flu-like illness. Malaria kills more than 660,000 people each year, more than 90 percent of them in Africa.
If the FDA's counterfeit detection device, or CD-3, proves effective in Ghana, the agency hopes to mass produce it on an international scale, which could ultimately reduce counterfeiting around the world.
Counterfeit medicines have long been a problem in developing regions like Africa and Asia, but more fake drugs have been making their way to U.S. pharmacies and hospitals as drug supply chains increasingly stretch across continents. Over 80 percent of the active ingredients used in U.S. pharmaceuticals are now manufactured overseas, according to one congressional estimate.