SA among 100 countries that received cancer medication that failed quality tests

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa is featured among countries that have received faulty cancer medication that may have caused the death of some patients.

A study by the University of Notre Dame, in collaboration with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), has revealed that one-fifth of the cancer medication tested among four African countries failed quality standards.

READ: 'It's heartbreaking': Cancer drugs shipped to more than 100 countries fail quality tests

According to the report, the questionable medication has been used on cancer patients in more than 100 countries and was shipped from India.

While none of the samples of doxorubicin or methotrexate that was shipped into South Africa was tested in the study, these are some of the chemotherapy drugs that were found to either have too little active pharmaceutical ingredients to work or had too much toxicity in them that may have caused death.

According to the report, South Africa received 850 packages of these medicines, which made their way to pharmacies and hospitals between 2018 and 2023.

The Bureau for Investigative Journalism’s Andjela Milivojevic: "The drugs that researchers tested have failed quality testing, which means that their active ingredient have been measured and active ingredients was really, really low, which means they are probably not going to help a patient at all. In some of them, the active ingredient is so high that they become toxic."

While researchers say South Africa is on the list of countries that received these drugs, it's unclear if any cancer patients succumbed to the disease while receiving treatment with these drugs.

The health department confirmed that the drugs were being used to treat cancer in South Africa.