Counterfeit Healthcare Products: Nepal at a Vulnerable Position

Nepal stands in a vulnerable position when it comes to counterfeit medicines as two of its major trade partners countries are leading producers of falsified healthcare products. The impacts that it can lead to are a lower standard of healthcare delivery to the public, increased cost of treatment, antibiotic resistance, and even fatality. The time of crisis as the Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is often seen as an opportunity to endorse substandard products in greater amounts. The people's doubt over the medicine is another issue generated by this malpractice that can lead to problems like vaccine hesitancy which can have scary outcomes so forth in a pandemic situation like this. Stronger national policies and vigilant authorities are prime to overcoming flourishing counterfeit culture as it is a peak time when we can not put public health at stake.

counterfeit medicines; Nepal; patient safety; substandard medicines.