China lashes out at report that it dumps counterfeits on Africa

China is defending itself against claims that it is dumping counterfeit drugs in Africa. Chinese officials have rejected as false a story by the U.K.'s The Guardian that reports that up to a third of anti-malarial drugs in Uganda and Tanzania may be fake or substandard, and that the majority of them are manufactured in China and India. The Guardian said the fakes are so well disguised that only testing can determine whether they are fakes. In a China Daily story, an official blamed "much-hyped reports" arising from "the cut-throat competition that China brings into the lucrative industry in Africa and are designed to tarnish Chinese anti-malarial medicines." A variety of sources have suggested that most of the counterfeits now circulating globally are coming from India or China, but at the same time, the World Health Organization recently added anti-viral API Ganciclovir, made by China's Hainan Poly Pharm, to its list of prequalified medicines. Story | More