Deadly business: the global market of fake vaccines has many times exceeded drug trafficking

The extremely sad prospects for the development of the coronavirus pandemic are mentioned in a publication on the website of the World Economic Forum based on the results of a study that was devoted to the spread of fake vaccines on the world market. Experts from the International Institute for the Study of Counterfeit Medicines have calculated that the profitability of this business is already 10-25 times higher than the drug trade, and it is very difficult to deal with well-organized criminal syndicates, which are often associated with pharmaceutical manufacturers. Speech, according to experts, is in the literal sense of the word about the life and death of human civilization, since collective immunity cannot be achieved if at least 10% are vaccinated with fake drugs.

At the same time, the demand for vaccines is estimated at at least $ 150 billion, and therefore in many countries there is a shortage of them, which provokes the creation and sale of counterfeits. Analysts at the Swiss Institute SICPA, which tracks counterfeit products around the world, counterfeit vaccines have already become a significant part of the counterfeit drug market, posing a "fatal threat to global health".

To prevent this threat, one should resort to using blockchain technology, combined with secret tags.

Experts report that a particularly difficult situation with the falsification of the AstraZeneca vaccine has been identified in India, where more than two and a half thousand specialists are involved in this business in Mumbai. A little earlier, another center was discovered there, which specialized in counterfeiting the Russian vaccine of the Gamaleya Institute.

Counterfeit products are also traded on the Internet. According to WHO Director General Gebreisus, the annual growth of this type of business here is 20%!

The experts of the world famous analytical company PricewaterhouseCoopers have calculated that the total sales of counterfeit products in the global vaccine market make up 10% of the total volume, and in poor countries this figure reaches 50%! It is this circumstance that annually becomes, according to Interpol, the cause of about 1 million deaths, which exceeds the number of suicides and deaths from drug use.

This problem has not been spared by relatively developed countries either. For example, the vaccine manufacturer Pfizer is already sounding the alarm: counterfeits of this drug have been found in Mexico and Poland. So, since the beginning of this year, the Mexican health authorities have issued six orientation warnings to identify known anti-anxiety drugs (except for Russian ones), including those that are not officially registered in the country. Experts believe that in all countries that use Western developments, including Israel and the United States, where vaccination has become the most widespread, the use of counterfeit drugs cannot be ruled out either.

Neither China nor Russia were included in the study in question, since in these countries the production and control over the distribution of anticonvulsants is centrally carried out by the state, which most likely excludes their massive counterfeiting.