EGA Press Release

Friday, 22 September 2006

COUNTERFEIT MEDICINES:
“Business with Certified Partners Only”

Speaking before an audience of generics industry representatives and European medicines authorities at the 12th Annual EGA Meeting in Budapest, EGA President Emile Loof identified the counterfeiting of medicines as an important issue facing the entire pharmaceutical industry today. “Counterfeiting medicines”, he said, “is a serious crime, driven purely by greed.” And he called upon the pharmaceutical industry as a whole to join forces to find a workable solution to this problem.

Counterfeiting mostly concerns high-priced products with high profit margins, such as patented treatments for erectile disfunction and high cholesterol, or anabolic steroids. According to two separate surveys carried out by the EGA in 2005 and 2006, no cases of counterfeiting were reported for generic medicines in the European Union, as these low-priced, low-margin products depend on high volumes to generate profit. “It is no use counterfeiting $1.00 bills”, Mr Loof said.

Still, putting an end to this practice is the responsibility of everyone in the industry. At best, counterfeiting is an unethical breach of trademarks and copyrights, tarnishing a company’s reputation and trademarks and resulting in important losses in revenues. But more seriously, counterfeiting of medicines represents a breach in the integrity of pharmaceutical products, creating serious risks to public health by endangering the lives of those who fall prey to unapproved and often impure, illegal counterfeit drugs. They also destroy patients’ confidence in medicines and in the public healthcare system.

While many solutions based on technology have been tried in the past, putting an end to counterfeit medicines can best be achieved by adopting a behavioural paradigm. Instead of depending on increasingly sophisticated and expensive technology which must be continually up-dated and is subject to manipulation and security breaches, a behavioural approach aims directly at eradicating the basic motivation for this crime by creating the personal values and corporate cultures needed to work in the service of healthcare.

One possible example of this approach would involve strict adherence to a clear code of conduct based on the ISO 9000 certification standard, requiring companies to employ transparent business practices, retain full control of all business processes, define clear responsibilities and competences, and undertake frequent internal and independent external audits.

In short, the EGA is calling for the adoption of a clear behavioural paradigm designed to ensure that the entire pharmaceutical industry is committed to doing:

“Business with Certified Partners Only.”

<< Back

---

For further information contact the EGA on
Tel: +32 (0)2 736 84 11 - .