EU must act against counterfeit medicines

11.24.00am GMT Tue 13th Mar 2007

London's Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford is set to quiz European industry Commissioner Günter Verheugen this evening at European Parliament question time over what the EU is doing to combat the counterfeiting of medicines.

This follows up a September 2006 resolution initiated by the European Liberal Democrat group in which Euro-MPs called for tougher EU action on the topic.

Baroness Ludford commented:

"Counterfeiting of medicines is not only an economic or trade issue, it is also a health one. Death, serious injury or drug resistance can result from people unwittingly taking fake medicines, as these may either be useless because they lack the necessary active ingredients or risky because they contain dangerous elements."

"The impact of the trade in counterfeit medicines is particularly felt by the world's most vulnerable people as these drugs primarily circulate in developing countries where they are used to 'treat' fatal conditions such as malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS."

"In our resolution last September, MEPs made a forceful case for the EU to beef up its action in combating counterfeit medicines. I am now holding the Commission to account to see what steps it has taken, particularly to enhance controls over medicines sold on the Internet."

Notes

Full text of Sarah Ludford's question to the Commission:

In its resolution on the counterfeiting of medicinal products of September 2006, the European Parliament called on the Community to equip itself as a matter of urgency with the means to combat effectively illicit practices in the counterfeiting of medicines; called upon the Commission to go beyond its Communication, 'Strategy to enforce intellectual property rights in third countries' and in particular urged the European Union to take adequate measures to combat the scourge of the counterfeiting of medicines in its territory.What concrete steps has the Commission taken since September 2006 to combat the counterfeiting of medicines within the EU and abroad? In particular, what measures has the Commission undertaken to enhance controls over medicines sold on the Internet?

The full text of the European Parliament's resolution on counterfeit medicines of September 2006 is available at

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+TA+P6-TA-2006-0351+0+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN