Headlines are filled with different brand of medicines

being counterfeited in many developing countries; Studies are

bursting with statistics showing 1% of medicines in the United
States are fraud while global production claims 30%. Reviews
are flooded with negative reactions from netizens on how
NGOs should have obliterated counterfeiting by now; World
Health Organization (WHO) is busy jotting down methods to
combat this illegal practice; Non-profit organizations such The
Peterson Group, icare.com and Anti-Counterfeiting Inc. receive
complaints on their system and process of battling against drug
counterfeit; Different government units such as that of Jakarta,
Indonesia, Beijing and Shenzhen, China are scrutinized for loose
security system. All of these issues have a sole reason for being:
the existence of counterfeit medicines.
The struggle and concern against drug counterfeiting is as
old as medicine itself, although not as rampant as it is today.
In as early as 400 BC there have been warnings of their
presence as Dioscorides, a Greek physician, pharmacologist and
botanist wrote in his Materia Medica about the detection of
counterfeit drugs. In the recent past, the unregulated
proliferation of pharmaceutical industries and products has
brought problems of extreme magnitude.

Concern regarding counterfeiting took a global scale after

the establishment of WHO in 1948 but it was not addressed in
an international sanction until 1985 in the Conference of
Experts on the Rational Use of Drugs in Nairobi. The meeting
suggests that WHO together with government units and NGOs
should study the feasibility of setting up a study to conclusively
know the real extent of the problem.
In 1988, the World Health Assembly requested the
director-general of WHO to create a policy that would regulate
the production, importation, exportation and distribution of
medicines. The resolution also requested WHO to create
alliance with UN secretary-general in case international
provisions are violated.
The first international meeting on counterfeit medicines, a
workshop conducted by WHO and the International Federation
of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (IFPMA), was
held from April 1-3, 1992 in Geneva.
A resolution dubbed as WHA47.13 financed by the
government of Japan was launched in 1994 with an objective to
assist member states in identifying and assessing counterfeit
problems and in development of necessary combat measures.
The campaign was highly successful in raising awareness and
since it ended in 1997, further international organizations and
campaigns were also held dominating even online platform.