Counterfeit costs

Mandla Mnyatheli, the Chief Director of company and IP enforcement at South Africa's DTI said recently that trade in counterfeit goods is costing the country more than R2 billion annually in lost revenue. A 2006 research report by UNISA's Bureau for Market Research found that counterfeit goods worth over half a million rands were confiscated at borders during the period under review. A major reason for this was the acceptance in developing countries of fake products.
While consumers do not always find it unacceptable to purchase counterfeit consumer goods such as bags, clothes and movies, these same consumers would no doubt be horrified to know that possibly 10% of medicines and pharmaceuticals on the South African market are counterfeit. This is the figure provided by a spokesman for the Medical Controls Council, who said that most of these products originated from China, India or Pakistan.