Table 1.
Overview of medicine samples collected and analysed.
Fig 1.
Flow chart showing sequence of analysis of medicine samples.
Screening by thin layer chromatography (TLC) led to the identification of 20 samples which were confirmed to be substandard or falsified medical products. One further sample with insufficient dissolution of the active pharmaceutical ingredient was discovered from disintegration testing (see text).
Table 2.
Overview of analysed medicine samples by drug class.
No entry in a cell signifies zero.
Table 3.
Overview of analysed medicine samples by stated country of origin.
Table 4.
Medicine samples not complying with pharmacopeial standards.
Fig 2.
Examples of falsified medicines identified in this study.
Left: Falsified Clomid tablets. Note the misspelling “Citrate de clomifère” instead of “Citrate de clomifène”. Right: Falsified Azithromycin tablets. The indicated manufacturer “KIP Hamburg GmbH Germany” does not exist. Further details of these two falsified medicines are given in Table 4 (samples no. 14 and 21).