Faith Nyasuguta
A startling new study has uncovered a hidden threat for cancer patients across parts of Africa: nearly one in six cancer drugs tested in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, and Cameroon were found to be either substandard or outright counterfeit. Published in The Lancet Global Health, the study sampled over 250 cancer medications from hospitals and pharmacies, revealing that about 17% contained the wrong amount of active ingredients – sometimes dangerously low, sometimes far too high.
These poor-quality medicines can lead to devastating consequences for patients who already face uphill battles to access treatment. For some, underdosed drugs mean their cancer keeps growing unchecked. For others, overdosed medication can cause severe side effects – in Malawi, for instance, some patients were hospitalized with intense vomiting and nausea after overdosing on methotrexate.
Yet what makes the problem worse is that bad drugs are almost impossible to detect with the naked eye: only about a quarter of the defective drugs had packaging flaws that hinted at problems. The rest looked perfectly normal on the shelf and required proper lab testing to expose their risks.
Lead researcher Marya Lieberman of the University of Notre Dame put it bluntly: “If you can’t test it, you can’t regulate it.” She noted that many African countries simply lack the specialized labs and trained staff needed to test these toxic, complicated drugs safely and accurately. Even when labs exist, they often avoid analyzing chemotherapy drugs because they are too dangerous to handle without the right equipment.
The World Health Organization has voiced concern, saying it is working with officials in the affected countries to study the findings and map out a response plan. Substandard or fake drugs are not a new story in Africa. The WHO already estimates that roughly 10% of all medicines in low- and middle-income countries are poor quality, with antibiotics and malaria treatments frequently affected. But the finding that cancer drugs – among the most critical and expensive treatments – are failing quality tests adds a new urgency to the problem.
Researchers say there are some bright spots: the majority of the drugs tested were safe and met quality standards, showing that some suppliers do get it right. But they warn that stronger regulation, better manufacturing oversight, and investment in local labs are badly needed. Promising new tools, like portable “paper lab” tests, are being developed to help catch bad drugs before they reach patients.
With cancer rates rising rapidly across Africa, experts stress that safe, reliable medicines must be part of the continent’s fight against a growing burden. Without them, patients lose precious time, money — and too often, their chance to survive.
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