WHO and Partners Accelerate Fight Against Counterfeit Medicines

WHO and Partners Accelerate Fight Against Counterfeit Medicines

November 16, 2006

Up to 50% of Medicines Sold Through Rogue Web Sites are Fake

    GENEVA, Nov. 16 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- The World Health
Organization (WHO) and more than 20 international partners
are today launching a comprehensive package of measures to
help national authorities safeguard their populations from
the dangers of counterfeit medicines.

    (Logo: 
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040610/CNTH001LOGO )

    At the opening of the first official meeting of IMPACT
(the International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting
Taskforce) in Bonn, WHO and its partners are unveiling a
programme covering legislation, law enforcement,
regulation, technology and communication.  IMPACT is also
issuing a warning against buying medicines from rogue web
sites as well as cautioning governments that existing laws
against medical counterfeiters are inadequate and do not
act as deterrents.

    Counterfeit medicines range from products containing no
active ingredients to those containing highly toxic
substances.  They can harm patients by failing to treat
serious conditions, can provoke drug resistance and in some
cases kill.  

    The latest estimates jointly elaborated by WHO, the
OECD, and the Pharmaceutical Security Institute show that
more than 30% 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% but
in many of the former Soviet republics it can be as high as
20%.  In wealthy countries, with strong regulatory
mechanisms, counterfeits account for less than 1% of the
market value, but 50% of illegal Internet sales are
counterfeit.

    "The impact on people's lives behind these figures
is devastating," said Dr Howard Zucker, WHO Assistant
Director-General for Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals.
 "Whether rich or poor, many patients trustingly taking
medicines may end up sicker or die.  In addition, precious
resources spent on these medicines go to waste."  

    The legal systems of most countries do not consider the
counterfeiting of medicines a more serious crime than
counterfeiting luxury items such as handbags or watches. 
Their laws are designed mainly to protect trademarks than
people's health.  In some industrialized countries,
counterfeiting t-shirts receives a harsher punishment than
counterfeiting medicines. 
WHO and its IMPACT partners will present guiding principles
for model legislation to help countries adapt their laws to
the gravity of the crime.  "A major objective is for
countries to agree that counterfeiting is a crime against
human security and incorporate that principle into their
laws," added Dr Zucker.

    Legislation, regulation and enforcement also provide
the basis for dealing with the sale of counterfeit
medicines on the Internet, which is already rife in
industrialized countries and is growing in a number of
emerging economies in Latin America and Asia.  

    Some Internet pharmacies are completely legal
operations, set up to offer clients convenience and
savings.  They require patient prescriptions and deliver
medications from government licensed facilities.  Other
Internet pharmacies operate illegally, selling medications
without prescriptions and using unapproved or counterfeit
products.  These rogue Internet pharmacies are operated
internationally, they have no registered business address
and sell products that have an unknown or unclear origin.
"This area needs more work," said Dr Valerio
Reggi, WHO Coordinator of IMPACT.  "But the message
for now is: do not take the risk of buying your medicines
from unknown sources, such as the Internet.  If you must
buy from the Internet, ensure that the website is that of a
pharmacy you know and trust."

    In the technology area, WHO has launched a challenge to
technology providers to come up with new technologies or
adapt existing ones to prevent counterfeiting and detect
and track counterfeits on markets and on web sites.  

    WHO is currently looking at proposals from three mobile
telephone companies to apply their technologies to check the
authenticity of medical products.  DNA-based technologies,
nanotechnology and other approaches will be assessed by
IMPACT in the first quarter of 2007.

    To improve communication, a small group has been
created to continuously update global data on medical
counterfeiting and share the information with IMPACT
partners.  In addition, advocacy campaigns including public
service announcements, short descriptive films and other
awareness raising materials have begun targeting different
professional sectors likely to come across the problem of
counterfeits.  Organizations representing health
professionals and consumers are supporting these
initiatives.  

    Three countries with a high proportion of counterfeits
have already started tackling the problem with IMPACT's
support.  Indonesia and Mali have begun wide communication
campaigns to educate the general public on the dangers of
counterfeits and to dissuade people seeking treatment from
buying on the black market.  Vietnam is establishing
mechanisms to coordinate more effectively between
regulatory, police, customs and provincial authorities in
order to improve detection of counterfeit medicines and
counterfeiters.

    "It is clear that action in a single sphere, like
legislation or technology is not enough to deal effectively
with the problem," said Dr Reggi.  "This is why we
need to act on five axes -¨C legal, enforcement, regulatory,
technology and communication.  It's also why we need to
coordinate action at a global level.  But the fact that
individual countries are already taking this on bodes well
for the future."
By the end of 2007 IMPACT aims to have all 193 WHO Member
States formally collaborating to stem global and national
counterfeiting of medical products.
  
    For more facts and figures on medical counterfeiting,
see:

     (login: impact1; password: impact2)

     
http://www.who.int/medicines/services/counterfeit/impact/ImpactF_S/en/index.html

    For more details on IMPACT and a full list of partners
see:

    
http://www.who.int/medicines/services/counterfeit/faqs/count_q-a/en/index.html
    
http://www.who.int/medicines/services/counterfeit/en/index.html

    For more information, please contact:

     Daniela Bagozzi, 
     WHO Media Communications
     Tel:    [phone]
     Mobile: [phone]
     Email:  [e-mail]

    All press releases, fact sheets and other WHO media
material may be found at http://www.who.int .

SOURCE  World Health Organization