Drugs as an instrument of public health

National dmg expenditure as a proportion of total health expenditure currently ranges from 7% to 66% worldwide. The proportion is higher in developing countries (24%-66%) than in developed countries (7%-30%). In the former, at the individual and household level, drugs represent a major out-of-pocket health care cost (1). 

In Mger, fake meningitis vaccines, administered during an epidemic in which more than 26 700 people had contracted the disease, led to the deaths of 2 500 people ). Substandard and counterfeit products are not only a problem in developing countries, but in developed countries as well (7,8,9,10,11). 

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