EAASM reports

Packaging Patient Protection

To read the full report, click here

Recommendations for new legislation to combat counterfeit medicines

The European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines (EAASM) has today submitted a new report to European Parliament, calling for enhanced legislation to improve the protection of Europe’s patients against the intensifying risks and dangers of counterfeit medicines.

Packaging Patient Protection, published by the EAASM in partnership with stakeholders in patient associations, non-governmental organisations and the pharmaceutical industry, is a clear set of recommendations for new laws to combat fake, counterfeit and substandard medicines.

The document delivers seven key recommendations for Europe’s policy-makers, including:

  • a legal obligation for any party in the supply chain unpacking a medicine box to (re)apply a minimum level of effective traceable and tamper-proof security technology
  • a mechanism to ensure that cost should not, as far as possible, be a prohibitive in the implementation of a universally-supported minimum security provision; however, original manufacturers may choose to supplement this with additional overt or covert security features on particular products
  • a means by which patient in Europe may recognise medicines that have been tampered with since issue from the original manufacturer

 

The Counterfeiting Superhighway – the growing threat of online pharmacies (June 2008)

To read the full report, including the extensive research results and recommendations, download it here.

There has been an explosion in the number of counterfeit medicines reaching patients in recent years – one reason for this is the increase in illegal online pharmacies.

Scope of this report

Untrained, unsuspecting consumers are vulnerable to the potentially lethal outcomes of buying medicines online. The Counterfeiting Superhighway reveals the scope and repercussions of this dangerous practice through extensive research and examination of over 100 online pharmacies and over 30 commonly purchased prescription-only medicines. These include medicines indicated to treat serious conditions such as cardiovascular and respiratory disease, neurological disorders, and mental health conditions).

Key findings from this report

  • 62% of medicines purchased online are fake or substandard

  • 95.6% of online pharmacies researched are operating illegally.

  • 94% of websites do not have a named, verifiable pharmacist.

  • Over 90% of websites supply prescription-only medicines without a prescription.

The report concludes by providing recommendations

Based on the research findings and calls all stakeholders including search engines, credit card companies, shipping companies, patient groups and regulators, to take action and halt this dangerous trend.

 

European Patient Safety and Parallel Pharmaceutical Trade – a potential public health disaster? (November 2007)

To read the full report, including the extensive research results and recommendations, download it here.

   Part 1

   Part 2

The European pharmaceutical market could be heading towards a public health disaster with respect to distribution chain regulation and supply chain security.

Scope of this report

The compelling report by Dr Jonathan Harper distils and analyses available studies, and examines the economic issues around parallel pharmaceutical trade (PPT). The report looks at how the right of every patient to expect safe medicines can best be respected.

Key reasons to read this report

To date, the main academic and policy arguments have focused on the economic issues of PPT. Dr Harper’s report provides analysis of the topic in a broader context, which involves a number of factors in addition to pure health economics.