Smuggled and counterfeit medicines silently killing Yemenis

Yemen is witnessing a wide spread of ineffective and expired smuggled medicines that violate manufacturing standards, cause health damage, and worsen the condition of patients or lead to their death.

Director General of the Supreme Authority for Medicines, Muhammad Soufi, told the A24 correspondent in Taiz that the phenomenon of drug smuggling has spread widely in the province recently, considering that it is one of the results of war and chaos in the country.

Soufi said that these drugs caused widespread diseases and complications for patients. Since there are no accurate statistics on the volume of smuggled medicines, the Yemeni Ministry of Health estimates that medicines smuggled before 2015 make up more than 50 percent of the medicines available on the market.

According to the Yemen Association for Consumer Protection (YACP), the war-torn country also faces the problem of a proliferation of expired medicines, as many “counters” change the expiration date.