Combatting substandard and falsified medicines: A view from Rwanda

• Substandard and falsified medicines are major global health challenges that cause unnecessary morbidity and mortality around the world and threaten to undermine recent progress against infectious diseases by facilitating the emergence of drug resistance.

• In a recent study, Rwanda had the lowest prevalence of poor quality tuberculosis drugs among African countries in the sample. This positive finding may be associated with Rwanda's efforts to ban the sale of monotherapies, ensure that private sellers of important medicines are qualified, and prioritize the prevention of falsified medicines entering the country.

• Drawing on our experiences in Rwanda scaling up pharmacovigilance for malaria and tuberculosis, we call for a global treaty and leadership by the World Health Organization to address manufacturing and trade in substandard and falsified medicines.

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Source: PLOS Medicine