Watchdog on the spot as fake ARVs, HIV kits and Viagra infiltrate Kenya
The Pharmacy and Poisons Board has confirmed that falsified antiretroviral medicines have entered Kenya's regulated supply chain
Antiretroviral drugs are lifelong treatments, not medicines taken for a few days before stopping. The moment a person living with HIV stops receiving an effective dose, the virus begins to multiply again. It replicates, adapts, and, when repeatedly exposed to inadequate or falsified medication, can develop resistance. Once resistance sets in, even genuine medicines may no longer work, leaving patients with fewer treatment options.
That is why the Pharmacy and Poisons Board’s (PPB) confirmation that falsified antiretroviral medicines have entered Kenya’s regulated supply chain has alarmed public health experts.
On July 1, 2026, the regulator announced that substandard and falsified medical products had been detected in pharmacies, health facilities and other licensed outlets. Among them were Truvada, an antiretroviral medicine used in HIV treatment and prevention, HIV rapid test kits, heparin injections used in hospitals and Viagra.
“We have identified falsified products in the market. The alerts we have issued are based on real findings, not speculation. These products were in circulation,” said Dr Edward Abwao, the PPB’s Head of Post-Market Surveillance.
His presentation revealed that between 2021 and 2025, Kenya recorded 1,413 product quality complaints and 99 product recalls. Reports of adverse drug events increased dramatically, from 651 in 2011 to 32,833 in 2025. Since 2020, the PPB has issued 18 alerts on suspected falsified medicines, seven of them in 2025 alone.
The regulator says the increase reflects stronger surveillance rather than a worsening problem. Nevertheless, experts warn that the discovery of fake antiretroviral drugs in the regulated market represents one of the most serious threats to Kenya’s HIV response in decades.
Falsified medicines deliberately misrepresent a product’s identity, composition or source. They often resemble genuine medicines but contain the wrong ingredients, insufficient amounts of the active pharmaceutical ingredient or none at all.
Dr Davji Atella, Secretary-General of the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union, says poor-quality medicines can have devastating consequences.
“When a patient takes a substandard antibiotic, either the infection does not clear and the patient becomes sicker, or bacteria are exposed to inadequate drug levels and develop resistance. That resistance does not remain confined to one individual; it spreads. Antimicrobial resistance is one of the biggest public health threats globally, and substandard medicines are fuelling it,” he said.
The implications are even more serious for HIV treatment.
Antiretroviral medicines suppress the virus to undetectable levels, but only if patients receive genuine medication.
“If someone is taking falsified Truvada, the virus is not being suppressed. It continues to replicate. As it replicates in the presence of an inadequately constituted drug, it develops resistance. When the patient is eventually switched to genuine medication, it may no longer work because the virus has already become resistant. That is not reversible,” Dr Atella said.
Fake medicines
For patients unknowingly taking fake medicines, the consequences are profound. They adhere to treatment faithfully but continue to deteriorate because the medicines they trusted never had the intended therapeutic effect.
The stakes are particularly high for Kenya, which has spent decades building one of Africa’s strongest HIV treatment programmes.
New HIV infections fell by 56 per cent between 2020 and 2026, dropping from 32,027 to 13,936. AIDS-related deaths also declined, while nearly all of Kenya’s 1.48 million people living with HIV are now receiving treatment.
Health experts warn that widespread treatment failure caused by falsified medicines could reverse those gains by increasing drug resistance, treatment failure and new infections.
The discovery has also placed the spotlight on the Pharmacy and Poisons Board itself. As the agency responsible for registering medicines, licensing pharmacies and monitoring quality, it is now facing questions about how falsified products entered the regulated market.
According to the PPB, criminal networks exploit porous borders, informal markets and increasingly, online medicine vendors operating outside regulatory oversight. Kenya currently has only 15 post-marketing surveillance sites and 30 pharmacovigilance centres—a relatively small network for a country of about 55 million people.
The World Health Organisation estimates that one in every 10 medicines in low- and middle-income countries is either substandard or falsified. Across Africa, poor-quality antimalarial medicines alone contribute to more than 267,000 deaths each year.
Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has also warned about unregulated online medicine sales and home deliveries, saying the government plans to tighten controls and criminalise illegal medicine distribution.
Kenya is now developing a National Action Plan on Substandard and Falsified Medical Products with support from the World Health Organisation. The strategy seeks to strengthen border surveillance, investigations, intelligence sharing and digital tracking of medicines.
For Dr Atella, however, stronger regulation must be matched by accountability.
“If a falsified product is found inside the regulated market, the first question is how it got there. The second is how many patients have already taken it. The third is what is being done for those patients,” he said. “The regulator has the mandate and the authority. The public deserves answers because lives depend on the integrity of every medicine dispensed.”
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