Fake drugs are nothing new. In 2005, a 23-year-old man from Myanmar developed malaria. He was prescribed artesunate, a relatively common drug used to treat the ailment. In the days that followed, the young man slipped into a coma and eventually died, showing no response whatsoever to the treatment that followed. Officials in the region investigated the artesunate he was given and discovered that it only contained 20% of the active ingredient it was supposed to deliver.
