general introduction:
Counterfeit medicines are medicines that are deliberately and fraudulently mislabelled with respect to identity and/or source.
Use of counterfeit medicines can result in treatment failure or even death.
Public confidence in health-delivery systems may be eroded following use and/or detection of counterfeit medicines.
Both branded and generic products are subject to counterfeiting.
All kinds of medicines have been counterfeited, from medicines for the treatment of life-threatening conditions to inexpensive generic versions of painkillers and antihistamines.
Counterfeit medicines may include products with the correct ingredients or with the wrong ingredients, without active ingredients, with insufficient or too much active ingredient, or with fake packaging.
definition of conterfeiting:
Counterfeiting is a criminal offense when it involves an intent to defraud in passing off the counterfeit item. The law contains exemptions for collector's items and items that are so obviously dissimilar from the original that a reasonable person would not consider them real. However, making a poor copy is no defense if the intent to defraud exists.