Switzerland Joins Europe-Wide Fight Against Fake Drugs
Posted on: Wednesday, 21 September 2005, 09:00 CDT
Switzerland joins Europe-wide fight against fake drugs
GENEVA, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- Switzerland is taking part in a Europe-wide campaign to combat counterfeit drugs that pose a risk to the health of people who use them, the country's official website swissinfo reported Tuesday.
The report came one day before an expected discussion of the fake drugs problem at a three-day Council of Europe meeting starting on Wednesday. The meeting is initiated by the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products, Swissmedic.
"This is a Europe-wide problem, which means we have to collaborate," said Paul Dietschy, spokesman of Swissmedic.
The conference, to be held at the Council of Europe headquarters in Strasbourg, France, will be attended by representatives of all 46 Council of Europe member states together with healthcare professionals, patients' organisations and representatives from the pharmaceutical industry.
"We need a collaboration between customs, justice authorities and police on the one hand and the drugs industry, including manufacturers, wholesalers and medicine agencies on the other," said Dietschy.
Besides two high-profile cases of counterfeit drug trafficking in Switzerland in the past three years, Swissmedic is also concerned about the quantity of fake drugs available on the internet.
"Some countries need to change their laws because this is not illegal in all countries. We also need to solve problems with data protection that stops us getting information," said Dietschy.
He hopes the program of workshops and presentations in Strasbourg will lead to a coordinated effort to combat the problem.
He said the problem of counterfeit drugs was relatively new in Europe, but has been growing steadily over the past five years.
"There have been about 15 big cases in Europe that we know of. There is big money involved," he added.
Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS
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