- The appearance of counterfeit products has increased dramatically over recent years.
- These products are often unsafe, compete unfairly with legitimate business and can damage legitimate manufacturers’ reputations
- Widespread counterfeiting can also jeopardize public confidence in products bearing legitimate approval marks, posing a significant threat to leading brands and the profits of the companies behind them, as well as the safety of the consumers.
- An end costumer will never buy a counterfeit product intentionally, but the detection is extremely difficult for the public.
- For Example, One of the biggest risks of counterfeit medicines is that patients may not get the therapeutic benefit expected from the product
- For instance, a drug for shrinking a cancerous tumor may not benefit the patient because it contains none, or too little, of the active ingredient. Conversely, the product may contain too much active ingredient or other potentially dangerous contaminants, which could also be harmful.
- Counterfeiters take full advantage of the fact that someone else paid the upfront money for research and development expenses; they just copy the appearance of the product.
- As a consequence Consumers are under a significant health threat.