Healthcare providers’ knowledge gaps and educational needs in addressing substandard and falsified oncology drugs: a scoping review

Introduction Substandard and falsified (SF) drugs are an increasingly widespread threat to global health. Expensive medicines that are prone to shortages, such as cancer therapies, tend to be a target of counterfeiters due to their high profit potential. There are concerns that healthcare providers (HCPs) lack knowledge of SF drug threats and how to identify and report suspicious drugs. We conducted this scoping review to map evidence on oncology HCPs’ awareness, knowledge and educational needs regarding SF oncology drugs. Specifically, we examined HCPs’ awareness of SF prevalence, confidence in counselling patients to prevent exposure and ability to report suspected cases to regulatory authorities. Research design and methods This scoping review was conducted using the Arksey and O’Malley scoping review framework. We searched PubMed and Embase databases through 14 December 2024 using keywords on the topics of: (1) SF drugs in oncology, (2) challenges and supply chain integrity specific to oncology drugs and antineoplastics and (3) successful education and training models for HCPs working in oncology. Thematic analysis and narrative synthesis were conducted on the included papers. Results We identified 50 studies from 22 countries for our thematic analysis. Drug shortages, affordability and the rise of e-pharmacy were found to contribute to the propagation of SF oncology drugs globally. HCP awareness of SF drugs was generally low. Successful drug safety education interventions predominantly focused on pharmacovigilance and adverse drug reaction reporting rather than identifying SF drugs and counselling patients on safe drug purchasing practices. Conclusions SF oncology drugs are a global public health issue and HCPs generally lack adequate awareness of this problem. Educational interventions should be targeted at improving oncology HCPs’ knowledge of SF drug prevalence, and their ability to both identify and report SF drugs to the proper authorities and counsel patients on how to purchase drugs safely.