Fight against fake medicines

By Eduardo Pisani

Earlier this month, a British man was jailed in the U.K. for eight years for his role in supplying more than 2 million doses of fake medicines to treat schizophrenia, heart disease and prostate cancer.

The fake medicines which the criminal gang intended to pass off as real in the European market were part of a global network stretching from China to Belgium and Mauritius to supply counterfeit medicines and launder money.

Fake prescription drugs are a lucrative and growing criminal business. We are hard-wired to condemn criminal narcotic drug rings and we are increasingly aware of counterfeit luxury goods. But counterfeit medicines, a crime against patients with sometimes tragic results, receive far less attention.

Behind the scenes, regulatory authorities are working hard to fight this form of crime, and this is one of the topics taking center stage in Seoul as pharmaceutical companies, international health agencies, medical researchers and the regulatory authorities of more than 20 countries convene from April 26 to 28 for the three-day Asia Regulatory Conference.

Unfortunately the trade in counterfeit medicines is a growing problem. In 2009 1,693 counterfeit medicine incidents were recorded, a 7 percent increase from the previous year and Asia was the region most frequently linked to pharmaceutical crime incidents.

Not only does the overall number of incidents reported every year continue to grow, but also the number of countries involved, underscoring that this is a global criminal activity and governments around the world need to work increasingly together.

Alarming as it may sound, although Asia is more frequently linked to incidents than other regions this should not necessarily be seen as a region with weak enforcement and inspection programs. Rather, it shows that countries in this region are effectively identifying pharmaceutical crime through law enforcement activity and inspections by drug regulatory agencies.

The conference this week will build on this work and will look at further measures to stop the international trade in counterfeit medicines. The three fake medicines that were found in Britain had been shipped via Hong Kong, Singapore and Belgium and were all packaged as French medicines. The criminals stood to make more than $4.9 million from the drugs.

The fight against such criminals starts with government regulatory and enforcement authorities being vested with the proper powers and adequately resourced to fight counterfeits.

But they need the support of stakeholders across the pharmaceutical supply chain: public and private organizations, national regulatory and enforcement agencies, health professionals, patients, research-based and generic pharmaceutical manufacturers, drug distributors, wholesalers and retailers.

All must be made aware of the health threats posed by counterfeit medicines and collaborate in preventing them from reaching patients.

We can all help by being more aware of this form of crime. Although it is very difficult to tell the difference between real and counterfeit medicines, we all need to be more vigilant. We should take note of the prescription medicine’s taste and any associated feelings: is there anything unusual in your body’s reaction compared to previous experiences, such as a stomachache or headache?

Keep a diary of how you feel when you take your medications so you can compare them. Always ask your doctor or pharmacist what you should expect to feel when you take your medicine and when you should expect to begin feeling relief or improvement. Counterfeit medicines can contain not enough, too much or no active ingredient.

If your medicines do not seem to have the same taste or if you feel different than usual, immediately write down your symptoms and contact your doctor and pharmacist. You or the doctor must report anything that feels or looks suspicious.

At the Asia Regulatory Conference, the delegates are looking at what they must do at a national and regional level. But just as counterfeit medicines do not recognize borders, the participants are also reviewing how their efforts can link global cooperation in this area, including the International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force (IMPACT).

IMPACT is a global World Health Organization (WHO) initiative specifically focusing on combating the counterfeiting of medical products and where regulators, the international pharmaceutical companies and a range of other organizations have been working together.

Through partnerships it is hoped we can create a global framework that will stem the tide of counterfeit medicines and reduce the global public health risk.

Eduardo Pisani is director general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA, www.ifpma.org). IFPMA members work closely with the authorities to detect and test suspect products, pursue legal actions as appropriate, and are working with key health partners in education campaigns about the risks posed by counterfeits.