A study of the quality of cardiovascular and diabetes medicines in Malang District, Indonesia, using exposure-based sampling.

While we cannot conclude that the prevalence of poor-quality medicines in Malang district is zero, our sampling method, which reflects likely exposure to specific brands and outlets, suggests that the risk to patients is very low; certainly nothing like the rates found in recent reviews of surveys in LMICs. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of sampling medicines based on likely exposure to specific products and underlines the dangers of extrapolating results across countries.