MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has opened a new front in his war on drugs, targeting fake over-the-counter medicines to try to stem the spread of counterfeit paracetamol, his lawyer said on Wednesday (Mar 28).
Salvador Panelo, chief presidential legal counsel, said Duterte had ordered police to arrest those responsible.
An estimated one in 10 medical products in low- and middle-income countries is substandard or falsified, the World Health Organization said in January. It said the fake drugs business accounts for about 10 per cent of the annual US$300 billion global industry.