Substandard and falsified medicines: global efforts to address a growing problem.

Substandard and falsified medicines need to be acknowledged as everyone's problem, whether on street markets in rural Africa or in illegal online pharmacies in the UK. Poor-quality medicines have a detrimental impact on health, mainly when found among antimicrobials used to treat infectious disease in high burden populations. Often, discussions around substandard and falsified medicines include causal factors or consequences in isolation and may be presented with regional focuses and minimal global harmonisation. There are ongoing efforts to combat substandard and falsified medicines through legislation, manufacturing practices and supply chain management, as well as detection and reporting methods. Alongside these efforts, from a social perspective, we should optimise the resourceful positioning of pharmacists in all industries, as well as public health education and engagement. This article provides a rounded and comparative insight into substandard and falsified medicines for healthcare professionals and summarises the limitations to our knowledge and their effect on public health in high-income countries and low-to-middle-income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]