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

16-Feb-2010

The study reveals that $14.3 billion dollars worth of counterfeit drugs are sold yearly within Europe with Germany and Italy representing the majority of consumers

The survey asked around 14,000 people in 14 European countries and showed a staggering 38 per cent rise in the number of individuals who confirmed that they did buy prescription drugs without a prescription in Germany and Italy, and only 21 per cent confirmed that in the other countries.

Jim Thomson, chair of the European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines (EAASM), confirmed the report and told Reuters that:

“Counterfeit medicine is costing the industry a huge amount of money but it’s costing healthcare providers a lot more.”

Pfizer’s ran the research because it is highly affected by this problem with its products Viagra and Lipitor being the target of major fakers

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.

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An advert by Pfizer, supported by the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority and other  pharmaceutical and patient organisations dramatically shows the dangers of buying counterfeit drugs online:

The advert, showing a man coughing up a dead rat, will be shown across 600 cinemas in the UK and online.

David Gillen, medical director at Pfizer said, “the time has definitely come to issue a clear, unified message to people about the dangers of purchasing medicines from illicit and unregulated sources.”

“This advertising campaign forms part of a wider public education campaign launched by Pfizer last year to ensure the public is aware of the health risks they are taking by buying and consuming counterfeit medicines, potentially without even a proper diagnosis from a qualified healthcare professional,” he added.

Anti counterfeiting is a hot issue and many labelling and packaging managers are facing a big challenge in this area. The question is what is the best approach to tackling this issue? Item level serialisation and 2D or Data Matrix bar coding have been favoured by many.

The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) has been calling for “the implementation of a standardized identification solution for pharmaceutical products across Europe. This solution is a unique bar code (Data Matrix) supported by a pan-European verification system enabling pharmacists to check each medicine pack before dispensing it to the patient.”