Pharmacists’ awareness is essential to fight the distribution of counterfeit medicines. Counterfeit medicines have serious public health impact on the treatment outcome. The study was aimed to assess pharmacists’ awareness and practices regarding counterfeit medicines in Aksum, Ethiopia. A total of 41 pharmacists were participated in this study. The study was conducted using cross sectional study design in Aksum, Ethiopia between July and August, 2021. A structured data collection tool was used for data collection. Data were analyzed with the help of SPSS Version 23.0. More than 56% of the pharmacists had direct experience of drug counterfeiting, and 51.2% of them didn’t know counterfeit medication reporting system. About 58.5% of the pharmacists didn’t take any special training on identifying counterfeit drugs. Most of the pharmacists (73.2%) thought that the current law and regulations of drug counterfeiting are not enough. Approximately 44% of the pharmacists said that expiry date and packaging of the drug are the main distinguishing features of counterfeit medicines. The most important finding in this study was the pharmacists’ direct experience of counterfeit medicines, and there is a poor enforcement of law and regulations system in Aksum, Ethiopia. The results point out the need for strengthening the legislation, on regulations system and implementing awareness creation training for pharmacists.

Keywords: Awareness, Drug counterfeiting, Pharmacist, Aksum, Ethiopia