Blog about Pharmaceuticals – Medical devices – Clinical Trials and Health Care

A recent European conference hosted by TOPRA, held to discuss the legislative changes outlined in the “Pharma Package” published by the European Commission on 10th December 2008 has outlined the deep penetration of counterfeit drugs within the pharmaceutical supply chain.

During the conference Q&A session it was determined that counterfeit drugs are penetrating the supply chain deeper than first thought. Anti-cancer drugs and anti-psychotics are now being targeted by illegal gangs as the market for counterfeit drugs continues to grow.

Seizures of counterfeit drugs within the EU have risen from 0.5 million in 2005 to more than 2.5 million in 2007. Preliminary figures for 2008 also show a sharp increase in counterfeit sales.

The debate highlighted Jordan’s regulatory agencies who are imposing fines on the government if they don’t effectively control counterfeit drugs – the result of which has been the significant reduction of the number of incidences of drug counterfeiting.

Could legislation similar to Jordan’s be introduced elsewhere to help anti-counterfeiting?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 at 10:10 AM and is filed under Counterfeiting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.