WHO Medical Product Alerts
The World Health Organization issues alerts when falsified, substandard, or contaminated medical products are found in any country. Search the official source below — always live, never out of date.
Opens an official-source search so you always see the latest published alerts.
Official live sources
The official, continuously updated list of WHO alerts worldwide.
WHO — Substandard and falsified medical products →Background, definitions, and how to report a suspect product.
WHO Global Surveillance & Monitoring System →How WHO collects reports of falsified products from member states.
Falsified medicines cross borders. Verification should too.
WHO alerts often follow tragedies that were preventable with traceability. FirstScanIt gives every pack a signed, scannable identity so a falsified copy is exposed the moment a patient or pharmacist checks it.
How Verification Stops Falsified MedicinesFalsified vs. Substandard vs. Contaminated
- Falsified — deliberately misrepresents identity, composition, or source. This is counterfeiting.
- Substandard ("out of specification") — an authorised product that fails to meet quality standards, usually through manufacturing faults.
- Contaminated — tainted with a harmful substance, such as the diethylene glycol contamination of cough syrups linked to child deaths in several countries.
Why WHO Alerts Matter Globally
WHO estimates roughly 1 in 10 medical products in low- and middle-income countries is substandard or falsified. Because supply chains are international, a falsified product found in one country is often circulating in others — which is why WHO issues worldwide alerts and asks regulators and the public to report suspect products.
What to Do With a Suspect Product
Stop using it, keep the packaging, and report it to your national regulator (in India, CDSCO) and, where possible, to WHO. Check India-specific alerts on the CDSCO Drug Alerts page, and assess a specific item with the Counterfeit Risk Checker.
Why We Link Out Instead of Copying the List
WHO publishes new alerts as incidents occur. A frozen copy here would mislead. We point you to WHO's official, always-current list — the right source for any safety decision.