The French newspaper 'Le Monde' of Saturday 26 October 26 opens with an
article on counterfeit drugs: "Les pays du tiers-monde sont les victimes
d'un traffic criminel de faux medicaments (Third world countries are the
victims of criminal trade in counterfeit drugs)". Based on data provided by the
WHO, the author states that 7% of the medicines sold in the world are
counterfeited. In Brazil, 25% of drugs sold are said to be of counterfeit
origin, while up to 60% of the medicines found in some African countries were
believed to be counterfeited. US and EU industries are concerned about this
trend, and try to protect their brands by hiring private detectives to discover
persons and companies involved. The 'Le Monde' article goes on by blaming
Spanish, Italian and Greek companies, said to be notorious counterfeit drugs
producers. Reportedly, Belgium is used frequently as a transit country for
transports of counterfeit drugs and most of the transports come from Asian
countries.
Case
The article describes a case in Niger where 88.000 doses of vaccines were
used in a meningitis vaccination campaign, carried out by MSF Belgium. The
campaign was not effective. In Brussels, the MSF-team had some of the
vaccines submitted to laboratory tests: the vials contained water only. The
medicines had Merieux Laboratories (France) and SmithKline Beecham
brandnames. The companies claim not to know anything about these
products. Merieux started a process. SmithKline did not act, being afraid
that it might damage trade in Nigeria.
Repetition
Counterfeit drugs appear in the media several times per year. The disaster
in Haiti, where poisoned glycerine caused the death of more than 80
children, is remembered very well in Holland and Germany. Dutch and
German companies were involved and there were rumours about a Belgian
connection. A follow-up message was posted on e-drug early October by
BUKO Pharma, asking about Helm Pharmaceuticals, a German company.
IFPMA and WHO have warned several times that counterfeit drugs constitute
a major problem. Health activist organisations like BUKO, Wemos and HAI
advocate better export regulations for medicinal products as well as raw
materials.
I am very interested in answers to the following questions:
1. Does anyone have information on Spanish, Greek, Italian or other
countries involved in the production and/or trade of counterfeit drugs?
2. Does anybody know about Belgium being a transit country for
counterfeit drugs (coming from Asian countries)?
3. Does anybody know about the Niger case?
4. Does anyone have additional information about recent cases of
counterfeit drugs?
Thanks,
Mark Raijmakers
Pharma-Project Coordinator, Wemos
Postbus 1693, 1000 BR Amsterdam, The Netherlands
+31-20-420.22.22
+31-20-620.50.94 Fax
e-mail: marik@tip.nl