The 04/06/2016
The Academies of Medicine, Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine, as well as the three professional orders, presented, Tuesday, April 5, a manifesto calling for the application, in France, of the international policy against falsified drugs.
Health emergency
According to the Anti-Counterfeit Medicines Research Institute (IRCAM), an estimated 700,000 to 2 million deaths are linked to the consumption of falsified medicines per year worldwide. A scourge against which the three Orders and the three Health Academies (doctors, pharmacists, veterinarians) wish to fight effectively. For this, they presented a manifesto calling for international repressive measures.
If France has so far been spared, counterfeit drugs have despite everything crossed the borders of Europe and have already done damage. ” It is absolutely necessary to stem the trafficking of counterfeit medicines “, launched Isabelle Adenot, president of the National Order of Pharmacists. ” The stake is not financial, it is health “.
Indeed, 40% of drugs tested around the world do not meet current standards and, according to the WHO, 50% of drugs sold on the Internet are counterfeit.
Towards more repression?
” Simple operations ‘punches’ in the markets of vulnerable countries or spectacular ‘strikes’ prove insufficient », Alert the health authorities in their manifesto. ” The manufacture, transport, possession and sale of falsified medicines or vaccines are crimes which, like terrorism, must be prosecuted and punished because of the serious threats they pose to public health around the world They add.
The three Orders and the three Academies of Health also claim France’s ratification of the Council of Europe Medicrime Convention, on counterfeiting of medical products and crimes threatening public health. Signed in 2011 by 36 countries, it has only been ratified by 6 of them: Armenia, Spain, Hungary, Moldova, Ukraine and Guinea.
Read also: Medicines online: beware of counterfeits!
