About 20% of cancer drugs in 4 African countries are faulty

A dangerous number of people in Africa can take cancer drugs, which do not include important materials required to incorporate or reduce their disease.It is related to searching with roots in a complex problem: how to regulate a series of medical throughout the continent.A US and PAN-African Research Group published conclusions in Lancet Global Health this week. Researchers had collected dosage information from a dozen hospitals and 25 pharmacies in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Cameron, sometimes in secret.He tested around 200 unique products in several brands. Around 17% – one in about six – incorrect active ingredient levels were found, including products used in major hospitals.Patients who receive insufficient doses of these ingredients can see that their tumors continue to grow, and possibly spread.The past reports the same number of substandard antibiotics, antimalizers and tuberculosis drugs, but this is the first time that such studies have found high levels of high levels of high levels of false or defective anticancer drugs.“I was not surprised by these results,” said Lutz Hyde, a pharmacist from the University of Tubingon in Germany, who has previously worked for the Ministry of Somali Health and spent research on poor and wrong drugs in the last decade.The Hyde was not part of the search group, but said that the report highlighted the problem not already measured.“I am glad, finally, someone published such a systemic report,” he said. “This is the first, truly important systematic study of the region.”The reasons need to be addressed, but it is not straightforward: “There are many potential reasons for poor quality products,” a senior researcher of the investigation told DW.Those reasons may include defects in the manufacturing process due to defects or poor storage conditions in product decay. But some medicines are also fake, and this increases the risk of discrepancies between the product label and what is within the real medicine.Spotting can be inferior and false products difficult. Typically, a medical professional or patient is able to perform only a visual inspection – literally checking a label for discrepancies or pills and syringes for color difference – to spot wrong products.But this is not a reliable way. In the study, barely a quarter of substandard products were identified through visual inspection. The laboratory test identified the rest.Fixing the problem, Liberman said, the regulation will need to improve and provide screening technologies and training where they need.“If you can’t test it, you can’t regulate it,” he said. “It is difficult to handle and analyze cancer drugs because they are very toxic, and so many laboratories do not want to do so. And this is a main problem for sub-city countries where we worked. Even though many of those countries have quite good laboratories, they do not have facilities that are essential for safe handling of established chemo drugs. ,Not only cancer treatments are affected: Nearly a decade ago, one of the 10 drugs used in low and moderate -income countries was reduced by the World Health Organization, which were inferior or false. Since independent research has supported the figures, sometimes finding rates that are potentially doubled as high.“This may cause failure of treatment, adverse reactions, progression of the disease,” health economist Sachiko Ozwa told DW. Ozwa contributed to the investigation on anticancer drugs and has done separate research on other cases of faulty drugs. “For the community, there is also economic loss in case of ruined resources,” he said. “So countries can spend a lot of money on medicines that are not going to be effective.”While high-ion countries can monitor supply chains and have stringent regulatory systems to identify and withdraw suspicious products, the infrastructure to do so is far from mangoes in other areas.In those places, poor access to inexpensive drugs often leads patients to low-regulated markets. Inadequate governance and regulation, as well as monitoring and lack of clinical equipment to test pharmaceuticals, are all contributing to the problem in Africa.Ozwa said, “In high -income countries, I think there is a much more secure supply chain where you know that manufacturers are vetoed, it has to undergo very stringent regulatory processes to get approval … It is tested more often,” Ojwa said.The WHO told DW that after the findings of the report, it was working with four affected countries to resolve the problem.“We are worried about the conclusions that the article has exposed. Who is in touch with the national authorities of four affected countries and getting relevant data, “This is said in a statement.” We expect to assess complete information to evaluate the situation, which often takes time and capacity. But we are committed to addressing these issues working with the respective countries and partners. ,The WHO also reiterated its ongoing calls to improve their regulatory structure for countries, “including the settings of cancer programs to prevent the incidence of poor and wrong drugs”. ,Prevention, detection and response: In 2017, the WHO review and the review of Felted Drugs offered three solutions based on prevention, detection and response.SThe manufacture and sale of those drugs is the primary preventive measure, but where defective products make it in the market, monitoring and response programs can prevent poor quality drugs from reaching patients.But the regulatory reform sought by experts and officials takes time to take time. More immediate solutions are being developed as better screening technologies.Liberman is working on a “paper lab” – a type of test that can be used by trained professionals to test a product quality before being administered to a patient. Other laboratory technologies are also under development.A comfortable point is that while in four African countries, a significant proportion of the drug broadcast in medical facilities was defective, most of the tested products meet the essential standards.,[With] Two-thirds of suppliers, all products [were] Good quality, so good quality suppliers, “Hyde said.” But some of them have a really high number of unsuccessful samples. ,