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Counterfeit and substandard medicines remain a major threat to Africa’s health systems, contributing to over 500,000 deaths annually. In this op-ed, Mike Adeyemi-Lawal examines how a new wave of African health technology firms like MPedigree, RxAll, True-Spec Africa and Chekkit, are deploying verification tools to address this challenge.
“Technology is beginning to address critical gaps in medicine quality, but its impact will depend on integration, scale and alignment with market realities.” Says Lawal, an infectious diseases expert.
He argues that Africa’s pharmaceutical market, now worth around $200 billion annually, is expanding rapidly and regulations must be tightened to go hand in hand with the emerging technologies to tackle fake medicines.
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By Mike Adeyemi-Lawal’
According to the World Health Organization, at least 1 in 10 medicines in low- and middle-income countries are substandard or falsified. Africa accounts for 42% of all fake drug reports submitted to the WHO between 2013 and 2017, with an estimated 500,000 deaths annually in sub-Saharan Africa linked to counterfeit and substandard medicines.
Behind these figures are children treated with ineffective malaria drugs, patients receiving antibiotics with no active ingredient, and families losing relatives despite seeking formal medical care. The counterfeit drug crisis is not peripheral; it reflects systemic weaknesses across regulatory frameworks, supply chains, and enforcement, increasingly intersecting with organised criminal networks.
Africa’s expanding pharmaceutical market, now valued at approximately $200 billion annually, presents both opportunity and risk. Growth is attracting legitimate manufacturers, but also incentivising illicit actors exploiting regulatory gaps and fragmented distribution systems.
Several structural factors continue to drive the circulation of counterfeit and substandard medicines. Regulatory systems in many countries remain under-resourced, with limited inspection capacity and weak enforcement mechanisms. Pharmaceutical supply chains are often long and decentralised, involving multiple intermediaries, which increases vulnerability to product diversion or tampering. At the same time, limited access to affordable medicines pushes consumers toward informal markets where quality assurance is absent. Low public awareness further compounds the problem, as many patients lack the tools or knowledge to verify drug authenticity.
In response, a cohort of African health technology firms is developing practical interventions. mPedigree, founded in Ghana, introduced SMS-based authentication, allowing consumers to verify medicines using codes on packaging. RxAll applies artificial intelligence to analyse drug composition and verify authenticity while integrating procurement and financing tools for pharmacies. True-Spec Africa has developed a portable device, RAI (Real Active Ingredient), enabling institutions to confirm drug quality within seconds. Meanwhile, Chekkit is working with regulators such as National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control to implement serialisation and track-and-trace systems across supply chains.
Despite these advances, significant innovation gaps remain. Drug verification tools largely operate in isolation, with limited integration into broader digital health ecosystems such as electronic medical records or telemedicine platforms. This fragmentation reduces their systemic impact.
There is also a clear opportunity in data-driven surveillance. Aggregated verification data could provide real-time intelligence on counterfeit distribution patterns, enabling faster regulatory responses. Such infrastructure would represent a shift from reactive enforcement to predictive oversight.
Financing constraints within the supply chain remain a critical issue. Many pharmacies rely on informal suppliers not by preference, but due to limited access to working capital. Embedding credit solutions within verified procurement platforms, as seen in emerging models, begins to address the economic drivers of counterfeit penetration.
At the regional level, the establishment of the African Medicines Agency creates an opening for harmonised regulatory standards and cross-border traceability systems. Solutions designed for interoperability across markets will be better positioned as continental regulatory alignment progresses.
Finally, last-mile distribution environments continue to present a persistent vulnerability. Informal markets, rural clinics, and low-connectivity settings remain entry points for counterfeit products. Technologies tailored for these contexts, including offline verification tools and SMS-based systems, are still underdeveloped relative to need.
Sustained impact will also depend on behavioural change. Verification systems require active user participation, and adoption remains inconsistent. There is a growing need for tools and campaigns that build consumer trust, improve awareness, and normalise routine authentication of medicines.
The counterfeit medicines challenge in Africa is both a public health crisis and a systems problem. While technology is beginning to address critical gaps, its effectiveness will depend on integration, scale, and alignment with regulatory and economic realities.