WHO launches global plans to deal with counterfeiting problem
Global plans to tackle drugs counterfeiting were launched last week by the World Health Organization.
The plans, developed by the International Medical Products Anti-counterfeiting
Taskforce (IMPACT) includes proposals for legislation, enforcement, regulation,
technology and communicating risk.
“Without changes and improvements in those key areas we will not
succeed in the fight against counterfeits,” said Howard Zucker,
WHO assistant director-general for health technology and pharmaceuticals.
The latest estimates are that more than 30 per cent of medicines in some
areas of Latin America, south east Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are counterfeit.
In emerging economies, the proportion
is estimated at 10 per cent, but in many of the former Soviet republics
it can be as high as 20 per cent. Less than 1 per cent of medicines in
wealthy countries are believed to be counterfeit, apart from internet
sales, where counterfeits account for 50 per cent of
transactions.
In a press statement, the WHO said that the legal systems of most countries
with laws designed to protect trademarks, rather than health, consider
the seriousness of medicines counterfeiting to be on a par with counterfeiting
handbags or wristwatches.
“A major objective is for countries to agree that [drug] counterfeiting
is a crime against human security and to incorporate that principle into
their laws,” said Dr Zucker.
The IMPACT was
launched earlier this year (PJ, 25 February,
p226) and has been able to develop its plan in only a few months. Organisers
hope
that all 193 WHO member states will be formally collaborating by the
end of 2007 to stem counterfeiting.
European statistics Last year’s
annual statistics on counterfeits intercepted on their way into the EU
include medicines as a separate
category for the first
time.
In 2005, EU customs officials intercepted 148 consignments of counterfeit medicines
and seized over half a million separate items. Most counterfeit medicines intercepted
came from Indonesia, but the greatest number of individual consignments came
from India.
One of the seized products was made from brick dust coated with yellow road paint
and furniture polish. Counterfeit medicines amounted to 1 per cent of all recorded
interceptions of counterfeit goods.
Counterfeit clothing and accessories account for 64 per cent of interceptions
and 15 per cent of seizures. In contrast counterfeit cigarettes account for 1
per cent of interceptions and 43 per cent of seizures. |
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader