Falsified drugs are a major problem in developing countries, and emergency contraceptives are not immune.
Falsified emergency contraceptives have been found in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Angola, the United States, and now Peru.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology determined that 28 percent of the batches of emergency contraceptives they studied from Peru were either of poor quality or falsified.
Some failed to release the active ingredient quickly enough. Others had the wrong active ingredient (often, it was the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole), while at least one batch had no active ingredient at all.
The research team obtained samples of emergency contraceptives were from 15 pharmacies and distributors in Lima, Peru, with 60 tables purchased per sample. Tablets were collected from 25 different product batches encompassing 20 brands labeled as manufactured in nine countries (Argentina, Chile, China, Colombia, Hungary, India, Pakistan, Peru and Uruguay).
"A woman who does not want to get pregnant and takes these emergency contraceptives will get pregnant," said Facundo M. Fernández, a professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
The findings were reported in the journal PLOS ONE.
Source: MNT
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