The production of counterfeit or substandard drugs is a widespread problem which can no longer be ignored. The spread of counterfeit drugs not only in different developing countries also it was detected in developed countries as well which may take part in morbidity, mortality, drug resistance, toxicity and loss of confidence in health-care systems. Moreover effort is urgently required on the legal, enforcement and scientific levels to over come this rising problem. Reliable analysis of the suspect products with several techniques, essentially based on chromatography and spectroscopy, are now at the disposal of the analysts to enable the distinction between genuine and counterfeit products. However the determination of the components and the use of analytical data for forensic purposes still constitute a challenge. The aim of this review article is therefore to point out the intricacy of medicine counterfeiting, and its risks also its impact so that a better understanding can provide solutions to fight more efficiently against it