Counterfeit medicines and the unregulated market for drugs

Abstract

The unregulated market for medicines has evolved in different ways and exists in different forms in different parts of the world. Given this wide variation, the phrase ‘unregulated market for drugs’ is commonly used in a generic sense and encompasses the sale of medicines that have been licitly manufactured but diverted from legitimate sales routes as well as the illicit manufacture and sale of (counterfeit) pharmaceuticals. Also within this unregulated environment, prescription-only drugs are sold (illegally) without prescription.