Somalian pirates attack and seize commercial sea vessels semi regularly. While being held in captivity is very stressful for the captive and his/her family, the victims can take some comfort knowing that the pirates don't really want to kill their captives. The pirates need to return their victims alive in order to receive the desired ransom. The same cannot be said of producers and distributors of counterfeit medication.

Like the Somalian pirates, the primary intention of counterfeiters is to make money. The difference is that counterfeiters have no motivation to make sure their victims are not harmed or killed. Counterfeiters make their money once the fake product or document is sold or is cleared by law enforcement. By the time harm is caused to the victim, the counterfeiter and the distributer are out of the picture.

Counterfeit medication sales are commonplace in Somalia. This is in part because there are a lot of people running pharmacies who are not trained medical professionals and in part because there is has been no medical regulation agency in Somalia for the last 20 years.

How widespread is the problem?  According to Dr. Awil Ahmed "Patients are always in queue, regularly visiting doctors as they were not recovered from illness as a result of counterfeit drugs."

There is no way to measure the death rates from counterfeit medication in Somalia but doctors there are worried.  “Even in Mogadishu you have access to buy drugs banned worldwide including Femidol, Novelgin and excessive drugs like diazepam without medical prescription,” Sahra Mohamed, a member of the medical staff at Banadir Maternity hospital in Mogadishu, told Somalia Report. “These kind of businessman is run by people who do not care about the health and wellbeing of their people and they are money oriented," she added.

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Source: Fake drugs adding to death toll in warring Somalia