Indian counterfeit survey 'flawed'?

An article by Roger Bate of the American Enterprise Institute has taken issue with the findings of a survey carried out by India's government indicating a very low percentage of counterfeit drugs in the country.
 
The survey, coordinated by India's Deputy Drugs Controller Dr. Debasish Roy, found a counterfeit and substandard medicine rate of just 0.04 per cent among more than 24,000 samples taken from dozens of sources across India.

In the article, which is available to read here, Bate cites Vijay Karan, the former head of the Delhi Police Department, as claiming that pharmacies were warned in advance about the survey, undermining its findings.

SecuringPharma.com gave a brief mention of the headline findings when released and has repeatedly asked Dr. Roy and the Central Drug Standard Control Organisation for additional information, but has not received any response.

Bate's commentary notes that this approach is a "classic tactic used by many governments and UN agencies [that] ensures positive media coverage of the headline figure, while depriving analysts of the possibility of criticism of the headline at the time."

Bate and colleagues from the International Policy network (Julian Harris), Oxford University (Dr. Paul Newton) and Ghanaian firm mPedigree (Bright Simons) - whose anti-counterfeiting technology was recently featured on this site - will hold a meeting later this month in London to explore how politics is impacting efforts to combat the trade in fake medicines.

More information on the event is available here.


Related articles:

Questions raised over Indian anti-counterfeit act

Indian survey 'finds few counterfeits'

India boosts sentences for fake drug offenders

Counterfeit drugs take hefty toll in developing world