EGA Press Release

Thursday, 20 September 2007

EUROPEAN GENERIC MEDICINES INDUSTRY LAUNCHES PACT AGAINST THE COUNTERFEITING OF MEDICINES

The European Generic medicines Association (EGA) has today launched a plan to establish a supply chain integrity pact to fight the counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals.

The pact, already supported by the European pharmacists’ and pharmaceutical wholesalers’ associations (PGEU and GIRP), will focus on strengthening the cooperation and improving the transparency of operations between all the actors in the pharmaceutical supply chain, ie manufacturers, wholesalers and dispensers. The aim is to engage all the members of the supply chain in the project.

The integrity pact was announced today by Mr Greg Perry, Director General EGA, at the GIRP Conference in Brussels on “How Modern Tools will Enhance Patients’ Safety”.

At present there are no recorded cases of counterfeit generic medicines in the EU as counterfeiters target high value brand pharmaceuticals such as Viagra© and Cialis©. The low price of generic medicines in the EU, combined with well-established reimbursement systems for medicines, currently make generic medicines unattractive to counterfeiters.

However, the European generic medicines industry prefers not to be complacent, and believes that action aimed at securing the current supply chain between licensed operators is the most effective means to stop current and potential threats. Stronger measures by governments to tighten licensing systems may be required and the EGA has proposed a working party composed of pact members to look at what possible operational and/or behavioural actions may need to be implemented.

The EGA initiative will not include a review of technical options such as multi-serial barcodes and electronic verification systems. These options are being discussed in other fora, and involve measures which are potentially time-consuming, costly and problematic to operate and enforce.

The integrity pact announced today will be opened to all operators in the supply chain, including European representatives of all pharmaceutical manufacturers and parallel importers. Patient groups and national authorities with responsibilities for anti-counterfeiting will also be invited to participate in the working group.

See also:

EGA Press Release of 14 May 2007 EGA Position Paper on Anti-Counterfeit Policy << Back

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