Value for money of medicine sampling and quality testing: evidence from Indonesia.

Background: Substandard and falsified medicines (SFMs) are a public health concern of global importance. Postmarket surveillance in the form of medicine sampling and quality testing can prevent and detect SFM, however, there is remarkably scarce evidence about the cost and value for money of these activities: how much do they cost and how effective are they in detecting SFM?

Methods: Between February and October 2022, Systematic Tracking of At Risk Medicines (STARmeds) collected and analysed for quality 1274 samples of 5 medicines from physical and online retail outlets in 7 Indonesian districts. We collated data on the resources consumed by STARmeds, related to all stages of medicines sampling and quality testing including design, fieldwork and laboratory analysis.

Substandard and Falsified Medicines: Proposed Methods for Case Finding and Sentinel Surveillance.

The World Health Organization and others warn that substandard and falsified medicines harm health and waste money, especially in low- and middle-income countries. However, no country has measured the market-wide extent of the problem, and no standardized methods exist to estimate the prevalence of either substandard or falsified medicines. This is, in part, because the task seems overwhelming; medicine markets are huge and diverse, and testing medicines is expensive.

Challenges in maintaining medicine quality while aiming for universal health coverage: a qualitative analysis from Indonesia.

Introduction: Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, is close to achieving universal health coverage (UHC). A widely-publicised falsified vaccine case in 2016, coupled with a significant financial deficit in the national insurance system, has contributed to concern that the rapid scale-up of UHC might undermine medicine quality. We investigated the political and economic factors that drive production and trade of poor-quality medicines in Indonesia.

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.