'Fake medicine' allegations against China baseless

China's entry into Africa's pharmaceutical industry is causing competition and discontent among industry players especially those from the West, with the latter accusing the former of shipping "fake" medication to the continent.

Policy makers, pharmacists, distributors and suppliers in Uganda, however, refuted the allegations, noting that they arise from the cut-throat competition that China brings into the lucrative industry in Africa and are designed to tarnish Chinese anti-malarial medicines.

Some Western media outlets have recently hatched out a multitude of much-hyped reports against Chinese medications. The volley of attacks started when British newspaper The Guardian alleged late December that one third of the fake anti-malaria drugs in Uganda and Tanzania have origins in China and India.

However, Kate Kikule, chief drug inspector at the National Drug Authority (NDA), told Xinhua in an interview on Wednesday that no comprehensive survey has been conducted so far to investigate how many anti-malarial products are fake and are from China.

"The studies we have conducted show that there are some substandard products but not necessarily that they are all from China," she said.

Kong Dongsheng, Managing Director of Sino Africa Medicines and Health Limited, a supplier of the Chinese anti-malarial drug Duo-Cotexin, told Xinhua earlier this month that China is a new entrant into Uganda's anti-malarial drug industry with a not more than 10 percent market share.

He said the allegations against China was politically-motivated and must not be tolerated.

He said the Ugandan government and the National Drug Authority (NDA) should be trusted as it has a stringent code on licensing a company to distribute medicines in the East African country.

Even if there are fake medicines in Uganda, there are not as many as the report indicated, he added.

Stephen Kyebambe, a senior consultant physician at China-Naguru Friendship Hospital in the capital Kampala, told Xinhua that an increasing number of patients prefer cheap but effective drugs manufactured in China or India than those made in the West.