India’s Poor Quality Drugs End Up in Africa, Study Finds
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Generic drugs that some Indian companies send to African countries are lower quality than the same medicines the companies sell at home and outside Africa, according to tests of 1,470 samples, researchers said.
Two widely used antibiotics and two TB treatments, purportedly made in India, are more likely not to have enough of their key active ingredient when sold in Africa, compared with the same pills sold in countries such as Russia and China, according to a paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research. The findings suggest Indian drugmakers may be sending low-quality drugs to poorer countries, the authors wrote.