[Ip-health] Financial Times: Chirac demands tough action on fake medicines

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ab959040-b6c5-11de-8a28-00144feab49a.html

Chirac demands tough action on fake medicines

By Andrew Jack in London

Published: October 12 2009 03:00 | Last updated: October 12 2009 03:00

France's former president Jacques Chirac is to spearhead a political
campaign for an international treaty to criminalise fake -medicines ,
as concern grows over their threat to public health around the world.

Mr Chirac will today unveil in Cotonou in Benin a declaration signed
by African and Asian heads of state calling for a United Nations
convention to fight fake medicines by imposing tough penalties,
strengthening manufacturing and distribution controls and improving
awareness.

The move marks a fresh step by regulators, governments and medical
groups in taking more aggressive action as criminal groups exploit
poor controls, high profits and limited enforcement to diversify from
narcotics into the business of fake medicines.

It also marks one of the most high-profile initiatives so far by Mr
Chirac's -foundation, established after the end of his term as French
president, and dovetails with long-standing French concerns over
counterfeits.

"Informal co-operation is not enough," said Mr Chirac in a written
interview with the Financial Times. "Fake medicines have become a real
market that is poised to overtake that for narcotics. It is essential
to mobilise all parts of society. An international convention ratified
by the UN will provide a framework to attack criminal networks."

While counterfeit drugs are a relatively small problem in the US and
Europe - found mainly as "lifestyle medicines" purchased over the
internet - some studies have suggested that most malaria drugs and
other essential treatments for serious illnesses in parts of Africa
and Asia are fake and killing patients.

A study released last week showed 60 per cent of drugs sold at private
pharmacies near the border of Cambodia and Thailand were substandard
or counterfeit.

Mr Chirac's efforts are focused on sub-standard medicines that do not
contain the claimed and approved ingredients, side-stepping the issue
of generic drugs which meet approved quality standards but may violate
the patents of the companies that originally developed them.

Officials hope the Cotonou declaration, to be endorsed by senior
African Union leaders and ministers from other countries, will trigger
discussion at the World Health assembly next May, ahead of a
conference at the end of next year in Geneva.

Some countries including Nigeria have long advocated an international
convention, while others - put off by the protracted negotiations
behind the tobacco treaty - have preferred instead to focus on less
formal co-operation.

There may also be political tensions in approving and enforcing a
convention from countries including China and India, where many fake
medicines are produced for domestic and international use.

Mr Chirac's foundation has a planned budget of =801.5m ($2.2m, =A31.4m)
for next year. Donors include pharmaceuticals group Sanofi-Aventis and
Alain M=E9rieux, the owner of biotech group BioM=E9rieux.

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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
thiru@keionline.org


Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile: +41 76 508 0997