Why falsified medicines reach patients: an analysis of political and economic factors in Romania.

Introduction: To protect patients against falsified medicines, countries around the world implement stringent regulations. Despite efforts to protect supply chains in the European Union (EU), authorities continue to find falsified medicine. We studied how in Romania, one of the poorest EU countries, political and economic factors influence the risk of patients being exposed to falsified medicines.

Identifying market risk for substandard and falsified medicines: an analytic framework based on qualitative research in China, Indonesia, Turkey and Romania.

Substandard and falsified medicines undermine health systems. We sought to unravel the political and economic factors which drive the production of these products, and to explain how they reach patients. We conducted in-depth case studies in China, Indonesia, Turkey and Romania.