To ensure that their online pharmacy is approved, Europeans will soon see a logo made of a cross on a green background. This will see the light of day in the second half of 2015.
1 in 10 drugs sold worldwide is counterfeit and this figure can reach 7 in 10 in some countries. Most often, websites serve as a trading platform. These tempting offers, which hide fake drugs, confuse consumers. How to tell the difference between an official site and a market of perlimpine powder?
A logo representing a cross on a green background is the symbol designed by the European Commission to prevent European consumers from buying falsified medicines on the Internet.
Thus, from the second half of 2015, this logo will be displayed on the site of reliable sellers. By clicking on it, the consumer will be taken to the National Authority’s website listing authorized retailers. (see below)
In more detail, the implementation of this new system is up to the Member States, which will have one year to prepare for it, the Commission said in a press release published on Tuesday. If the pharmacy is not listed, the consumer is called upon not to make any purchase. “A falisifé drug can be at best ineffective, but also harmful, even fatal”, warned on the occasion of this announcement the European Commissioner for Health, Tonio Borg.
Seizures of fake drugs are on the rise
As a reminder, this logo was developed as part of an offensive launched since 2008 by the Brussels executive against fake medicines and their proliferation via online commerce, which led to a new legislative framework in 2013.
A necessary counterattack due to the recent explosion in the counterfeit drug market. Last month, for example, an operation carried out in 111 countries and targeting retail websites resulted in the seizure of 9.4 million counterfeit or fake and potentially fatal drugs. This operation, Pangea VII – the largest ever organized against counterfeit drugs – led to 237 arrests around the world and the seizure of potentially dangerous drugs worth more than $ 36 million, according to Interpol details.
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