International treaty signed to combat growing counterfeit drug industry

According to a report by The Moscow Times, many European leaders have recently agreed to cooperate in the fight against counterfeit medicines:

Convention to Combat Fake Medicine Signed

(Moscow Times)  Russia, France, Germany and several other mostly European countries on Friday signed the first-ever international treaty to combat the growing multibillion-dollar counterfeit drugs industry.

The Council of Europe-sponsored Medicrime Convention, signed in Moscow, obliges signatory states to criminalize a broad range of activities that make possible the sale of fake medicines that harm patients and deprive legal producers of revenues.  The convention introduces minimum standards for the criminal law of the signatory countries, said Council of Europe media officer Estelle Steiner.

Ambassadors and diplomats of Austria, Finland, Italy, Israel, Iceland, Portugal, Switzerland and Ukraine have signed the treaty. It establishes as criminal offenses such activities as the manufacturing of counterfeit medical products (including equipment), their supply and offers to supply, trafficking and the falsification of related documents.

Many fake drugs contain an insufficient amount of active ingredients, which could cause fatal consequences for the patient.

According to the World Health Organization, counterfeit medical products represent between 6 percent and 20 percent of the market in some parts of Europe.

 

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