Counterfeit of Medicinal Products and Parallel Trade: What Consequences for the Patient’s Health?

Abstract

Counterfeit medicinals (so-called “fake drugs”) and the “parallel trade” are widespread practices all over the world and especially in developing countries, the causes of which are often to be found in the lack of commercial products available due to the lack of interest of pharmaceutical companies in these countries. In this article, based on the data available in the literature, we want to briefly describe what are the causes of these correlated phenomena and also the consequences in terms of patients’ health, both relating to the consumption of counterfeit medicines and the periodic shortage of industrial medicines and the possible need for parallel trade.