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

Indian bureaucrats and politicians must overcome short-term thinking and improve India's IP systems by ensuring that deserving products receive patents and making sure trademarks are enforced. Only then will India develop a true innovation economy.

Every day patients receive treatments that do not work properly. For many this means no relief from symptoms, but for some death is the result. Yet concerted action against such products is limited. Before we can discuss why that's the case, I will attempt to explain what kind of products don’t work, and what we should call them.

We are at a political impasse in the fight against fake drugs.

India is on the brink of finalizing a free trade agreement with the European Union. Yet even as the deal gets close, one area remains hotly contested: protection for intellectual property (IP). Controversy mounts over "data exclusivity" for pharmaceuticals.

Illegally copying a trademark is an important indicator of counterfeiting, although not necessarily of substandard drug quality.

India is the world's largest generic drugs manufacturing location but it has a significant problem with counterfeit and substandard drugs.

Myriad responses are required for all parts of the substandard drug problem.