Spurious and falsified medicines - a danger to public and personal health

Biomedical and pharmaceutical technologies are important scientific breakthroughs that contribute to increased
welfare. The medical conquests, however, also bring a number of challenges. One of the challenges is the widely
spread falsified medicines that are affecting both underdeveloped and developed countries including Sweden.
Falsified medicines are pharmaceutical products that pretend to be genuin and to combat diseases, but they may be
ineffective or harmful. They are thus a serious threat to individual health, public health and society at large.
In Sweden, the spread of falsified medicines is an underestimated health threat. Building on the knowledge we
acquire from previous interdisciplinary projects, several research gaps are identified where we can contribute to
combating falsified medicines and eventually to a well-functioning public health.
Combinations of qualitative methods will be employed to identify people's medicine shopping behaviours. This
includes ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews and focus groups with both lay people and medical professionals.
As we place our research focus on the Swedish society, fieldwork, interviews and focus groups will be conducted in
Sweden and with Swedish public and doctors.
Our proposed project carries on interdisciplinary collaboration between cultural and medical sciences. The results will
provide insights and knowledge that can offer recommendations to governmental and non-governmental legislative institutions.

Biomedical and pharmaceutical technologies are important scientific breakthroughs that contribute to increased
welfare. The medical conquests, however, also bring a number of challenges. One of the challenges is the widely
spread falsified medicines that are affecting both underdeveloped and developed countries including Sweden.
Falsified medicines are pharmaceutical products that pretend to be genuin and to combat diseases, but they may be
ineffective or harmful. They are thus a serious threat to individual health, public health and society at large.
In Sweden, the spread of falsified medicines is an underestimated health threat. Building on the knowledge we
acquire from previous interdisciplinary projects, several research gaps are identified where we can contribute to
combating falsified medicines and eventually to a well-functioning public health.
Combinations of qualitative methods will be employed to identify people's medicine shopping behaviours. This
includes ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews and focus groups with both lay people and medical professionals.
As we place our research focus on the Swedish society, fieldwork, interviews and focus groups will be conducted in
Sweden and with Swedish public and doctors.
Our proposed project carries on interdisciplinary collaboration between cultural and medical sciences. The results will
provide insights and knowledge that can offer recommendations to governmental and non-governmental legislative institutions.