Nurses and Patients Groups Join the Fight Against Counterfeit Medicines

The second Global Forum on Pharmaceutical AntiCounterfeiting, taking place in Paris, France, March 15-17 2005, is a unique gathering of all the parties involved in the fight against the pernicious and dangerous problem of counterfeit and substandard medicines.

Shepperton, UK (PRWEB) February 21, 2005 -- The second Global Forum on Pharmaceutical AntiCounterfeiting, taking place in Paris, France, March 15-17 2005, is a unique gathering of all the parties involved in the fight against the pernicious and dangerous problem of counterfeit and substandard medicines. The Forum is the only meeting that brings together the range of people that need to work together in the fight to protect patients from these fakes, from pharmaceutical companies to anti-counterfeiting services providers and healthcare professionals. Representatives of all these groups will gather in Paris to share their ideas on Taking the Fight Forward: Communication, Education, Detection & Deterrence -- the theme for this second Global Forum, organised by Reconnaissance International, the leading source of intelligence on authentication and anticounterfeiting.

Addressing the theme of Communication, at the second Global Forum these groups will be joined by representatives of healthcare professionals, patients and pharmaceutical distributors. As the front-line dispensers of medicines, healthcare professionals -- doctors, nurses, pharmacists - have a vital role in protecting patients from fakes. The International Council of Nurses (ICN) has recognised this role in publishing an Information and Action Toolkit on counterfeit and substandard medicines (as the focus of International Nurses Day on 12 May 2005). The motivations behind and hopes for this Toolkit will be explained at the Forum in a presentation by Dr. Delon Human, of the World Health Professions Alliance and Secretary General of the World Medical Association, with Linda Carrier-Walker of the ICN joining Dr. Human in discussing the Toolkit in depth. While the WHPA and its member organisations have held discussions separately with pharmaceutical companies and health officials, the Global Forum is the first time they have been brought into discussions with the gamut of drug regulators, manufacturers and the anti-counterfeiting suppliers.

Also for the first time, patients groups are represented at such a forum, with a paper from Jim Thomson on behalf of the International Association of Patients Organisations. This follows a heartfelt call at the first Global Forum, when it was pointed out that patients have more at stake than any other stakeholder in the fight against fake medicines. In the 30 months since the first Forum, patients groups have shown their growing awareness of this problem, and Jim Thomson will explain and describe their role in the ever-expanding fight against counterfeit pharmaceuticals.

Communication between all these stakeholders is essential to establish common aims and strengthen the fight against counterfeits, while both the nurses and patients groups activities demonstrate the value of Education and their role in Detection. Detection issues will also be explored through the Global Forum contributions of senior representatives of pharmaceutical companies.

Deterrence is a key matter in pharmaceutical anticounterfeiting, so this forms the final strand of the Global Forum programme. In many cases, punishment is too light to be a deterrent, where the counterfeits are treated as a trademark crime rather than a potential murder crime. This is changing and improvements in investigation and enforcement action, with deterrence regimes to suit the crime, will be described and discussed in the final session of the Global Forum, with contributions from public sector and private sector investigators and the judiciary.

Since the first Global Forum, the pharmaceutical industry and public organisations have made great strides in tackling counterfeit pharmaceuticals. The second Global Forum draws in the widest range of participants of any meeting on this subject to inspire more communication and future collaboration to confront the criminals who have no regard for patient health or life.

The plenary programme of the Global Forum is preceded by a special closed workshop for public sector and pharmaceutical industry representatives. This workshop on Managing a Counterfeits Incident will guide both sectors through the potential problems and minimisation of them when counterfeits are discovered, recognising the need to reconcile the sometimes conflicting demands of public sector and commercial considerations. The workshop will be led by Richard Merrick, Andrew West and David Davies of DMW Partners, experts in risk analysis and management.

Conference organiser Reconnaissance International is the internationally-known publisher of Authentication News, which covers the issues, strategies and technologies of anti-counterfeiting and diversion, and is also the publisher of Medicines & Pharmaceuticals: A Manual of AntiCounterfeiting Solutions. It has reported on the problems of pharmaceutical counterfeiting for more than seven years and has organised a series of successful Pharmaceutical AntiCounterfeiting Solutions Executive Briefings in both the US and Europe, including the first Global Forum on Pharmaceutical AntiCounterfeiting, held with the participation of the WHO, in Geneva in 2002.

Note to Editors:

According to the World Health Organizations definition a counterfeit medicine is one which is deliberately and fraudulently mislabelled with respect to identity and/or source. Counterfeiting can apply to both branded and generic products and counterfeit products may include products with the correct ingredients or with the wrong ingredients, without active ingredients, with insufficient active ingredients or with fake packaging." It is estimated that one in 20 pharmaceutical products on the market is counterfeit, with the number rising to one in three in some developing countries.

Counterfeit pharmaceuticals are manufactured and distributed by criminals, companies or individuals who have the desire to make money unlawfully. They may contain too much, too little or no active ingredient, the wrong ingredients or high levels of impurities, contaminants and even toxic substances. They could be reject or out-of-date formulations withdrawn from the market which are obtained by counterfeiters, relabelled as bona fide product and introduced back into circulation. They have killed and injured thousands around the world.

The consequences of such counterfeits can vary. They can either fail to treat the illness or condition for which they are being taken (resulting in prolonged illness or death and wastage of valuable healthcare resources) or they can be the direct cause of death by containing lethal ingredients. Whether they fail to promote or restore health, or are the direct cause of death, they are fast becoming a global menace -- both to their unwitting consumers and to the pharmaceutical industry as a whole.

More information on the Global Forum on Pharmaceutical AntiCounterfeiting and on the counterfeiting and diversion of pharmaceutical products can be found at www.pharma-anticounterfeiting.info.

There will a limited number of press passes for some of the sessions at the Global Forum. If you would like to attend, please register via the website as soon as possible.

Contact Details:

Danièle Letoré

GENEVENSIS Sàrl

Mobile: +41 79 202 6667

E-mail: info@genevensis.com

Astrid Mitchell

Reconnaissance International

Direct Line: +44 1434 344032

Mobile : +44 7771 982678

Email : amitchell@reconnaissance-intl.com

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