Worldwide, counterfeit medicines are on the rise and make up at least 10-15 percent of the world’s pharmaceutical market. Counterfeit medicines are medicines of inferior quality – sometimes even sugar water – or containing low levels of active ingredients, in order to bypass detection. They are estimated to kill more than 100,000 people across Africa each year. Benin, as the second-largest point of entry on the continent, is of particular strategic importance in the fight against counterfeit medicines. Approximately 25 percent of all such medicines pass across Benin’s borders.
The Government of Benin has initiated landmark crackdowns on counterfeit medicine trafficking. The first operation in February 2017 seized 100 tons of counterfeit medicines, and in December of the same year a second seizure confiscated 150 tons at the home of a high-ranking parliamentarian. A simultaneous investigation revealed that the corruption was directly linked to the formal pharmaceutical sector. This caused shock waves and outrage in Benin: counterfeit medicines had long been considered a problem of the poor, who bought their medicine through informal channels. The crackdown and subsequent fallout reinforced the notion that this is a broader societal and institutional problem that affects all citizens.
In partnership with the Government of Benin, USAID/Benin seeks to combat the scourge of counterfeit medicines and support good governance in the health sector. The Ministry of Health’s Department of Pharmacy, Medicine, and Diagnostic Exploration (DPMED) regulates the national pharmaceutical industry in Benin. Resonance provides technical assistance to DPMED to help plan, coordinate, and implement its program to combat counterfeit medicines.
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