Underpricing the competition in the other drug war: A novel strategy for combatting the inappropriate use of artemisinin monotherapies

摘要

The war on drugs conjures images of drug enforcement agencies battling to stem the tide of illegal narcotics coming from South American drug cartels. But a second drug war is underway, and the public health stakes are even higher. This is the trade in counterfeit, sub-standard, and inappropriate medications that plague low and middle-income countries. By some estimates, 33% of medications in poor countries are counterfeit or substandard, and the market for these is estimated at an astonishing 40 billion US dollars per year, rivaling revenues from big pharma. The consequences of inappropriate drug use are particularly injurious to public health.