Point-of-Care Anti-Counterfeit Medicines Technologies: Awareness and Utilization among Medical Practitioners in Eastern Nigeria.

Background: Substandard and falsified medicines pose a serious threat to public health throughout the world but disproportionately afflict under-resourced nations with weak pharmaceutical regulatory mechanisms. The prescription of medicines is an event in which a medical practitioner(MP) is a decision maker for the ultimate consumer who is the patient.

Aim: The study was aimed at describing awareness, identification, utilization, and barriers to utilization of point of-care overt anti-counterfeit medicine technologies(ACMTs) and the drivers, dangers and preventive measures of substandard and falsified medicines among MPs in Abia State.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study done on 178 MPs in Abia State, Nigeria. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire that elicited information on awareness, identification, utilization of overt ACMTs and its barriers. The drivers, dangers and preventive measures for substandard and falsified medicines were also studied.

Results: The mean age±SD of the respondents was 34±8.2 (Range 24-72 years). There were 159(89.3%) males. All the respondents (100%) were aware of the point-of-care overt ACMTs with the most commonly identified types being labelling (100%), packaging (100%), printing graphics (100%), and mobile authentication numbers(MAN) (100%). The most commonly utilized ACMTs were labelling (100%), packaging (100%) and printing (100%) technologies. Time constraint (100%) was the predominant predisposing barrier to utilization of overt ACMTs. The commonest classes of falsified and substandard medicines were anti-malarial (100%), anti-bacterial (100%) and analgesics (100%). The most common driver and danger of substandard and falsified medicines alluded to by the respondents were poor pharmaceutical products regulatory systems (100%) and treatment failures (100%), respectively. The most recommended preventive measure was securing supply chain of medicines (100%).

Conclusion: Awareness of point-of-care overt ACMTs was very high but did not appear to translate to comparable utilizations for all types. The most commonly utilized overt ACMTs were labelling, packaging and printing technologies. Time constraint was identified as a possible predominant barrier to utilization of overt ACMTs. The commonest classes of substandard and falsified medicines were anti-malarial, anti-bacterial and analgesic medicines. It was believed that the commonest driver of substandard and falsified medicines was poor pharmaceutical products regulatory system and all these could result in treatment failures. Securing supply chain of medicinal products may serve as an effective preventive measure.