MASERU — The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have jointly released a landmark report unveiling critical findings on the persistent and preventable threat of contaminated medicines which claimed the lives and compromised the health of countless patients, predominantly children, through the ingestion of medicines with dangerously high levels of toxic chemicals.
WHO and UNODC noted that over the past 90 years, at least 25 documented incidents of excipient contamination have resulted in more than 1300 deaths worldwide, many of them children.
These incidents, according to WHO and UNODC occur often due to systemic vulnerabilities in the global supply chain of pharmaceutical excipients, and they have disproportionately affected people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where regulatory oversight and access to quality-assured medicines may be limited.
Titled “Contaminated medicines and integrity of the pharmaceutical excipients supply chain”, the report, WHO and UNODC say highlights a tragic and ongoing public health crisis, the contamination of medicines with industrial-grade toxic chemicals, notably diethylene glycol (DEG) and ethylene glycol (EG).
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