For the purposes of this document, the terms drug, medicine, pharmaceutical product and pharmaceutical are used interchangeably to refer to medicinal products intended for prophylactic, diagnostic or therapeutic use.

Following this introduction, sections 2 and 3 provide an overview of the problems of counterfeit drugs and their impact on public health. Section 4 outlines the factors that facilitate counterfeiting. Sections 5 and 6 constitute the major elements of the guidelines and set out proposed strategies, approaches and measures to be taken by governments and other sectors in order to detect and prevent counterfeiting. Sections 7-10 provide supplementary guidance on the specific measures mentioned in sections 5 and 6. They cover assessment of the counterfeit problem at the national level, inspection in drug distribution channels when pharmaceutical products are suspected to be counterfeit, test methods, and appropriate training programmes. In addition to the list of references, suggestions are made for further reading, and a glossary of terms used is also provided.