The intent behind a proposed treaty to criminalize the manufacture and trade in counterfeited drugs is good, but only a treaty initiated by the World Health Organization will suffice.

The World Health Organizationhas just endorsed medicines that havenotpassed muster with western regulators.

Government agencies, the pharmaceutical industry, and humanitarian organizations must work together to stamp out counterfeit drugs.

The high persistence of substandard drugs and clinically inappropriate artemisinin monotherapies inAfrica risks patient safety and endangers the future of malaria treatment.

The proliferation of low-quality and counterfeit drugs is one of the most pressing problems in delivering life-saving medicines to the world's poorest patients.

The majority of the antimalarial products on sale in Kenya are neither brands nor generics but copy products of unknown provenance and variable quality.

Researchers and pharmacologists around the world are working on new drugs, but their efforts are complicated by the murderous opportunists who fake legitimate products.

Counterfeit and substandard pharmaceuticals are a massive problem, and international bodies need to confront them head-on.