Inside Dar’s malaria drugs theft network

Dar es Salaam/Washington. Tanzania has been named as being among the leading countries in theft and black market resale of anti-malaria medications donated by the US government, hindering global and country’s efforts to combat the disease.

According to the US-based newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, Tanzania is followed by Angola in theft of anti-malaria drugs.

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that US investigators are leading a probe into the widespread theft and black-market resale of malaria drugs donated to Africa by its government.

Spot purchases by The Wall Street Journal, made with the knowledge of local authorities, confirm that theft is a problem with donated malaria medicines.

In Angola earlier this year, the Journal bought dozens of packets of Coartem from street stores. An analysis of the drugs conducted by Novartis showed that the majority had originally been donated by PMI or the Global Fund and were intended for distribution in Tanzania only.

Some other packets were found to be counterfeit. Only one sample out of the dozens bought by the Journal at Angolan markets was legitimate—neither fake nor stolen.

Traffickers of the stolen drugs often transport them over land in trucks lacking air conditioning, jeopardising the drug’s efficacy in temperatures that can top 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Coartem cannot withstand temperatures higher than 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).

The trafficking route, the US is currently scrutinizing, starts in Tanzania. PMI and the Global Fund hire logistics firms to deliver Coartem to the airport in Dar es Salaam, where the drugs are supposed to be picked up and distributed in the country by official government distributors.

Instead, upon arrival, some of the drugs are stolen and redirected to West Africa via Congo, according to market-stall merchants who sell the black-market drugs in Angola, as well as African health officials and people familiar with the US probe.

According to the Novartis tracking data, some of the Coartem samples bought in Luanda, Angola, by the Journal were ordered in July 2012 by USaid contractor John Snow Inc. (JSI), for delivery to Dar es Salaam. They were destined for Tanzania’s Medical Stores Department (MDS), a state-run system of pharmaceutical warehouses. JSI isn’t suspected of theft or improperly diverting the order.

Other samples bought by the Journal in Luanda markets had been donated by the Global Fund and were meant for distribution inside Tanzania, according to the Novartis analysis.

Alex Tashama, 39, a Luanda street seller of Coartem—also diverted from Tanzania, based on the serial numbers—said the drugs “enter fraudulently” into Angola, hidden in trucks under vegetables.