Back Pharmaceutical crime and MEDICRIME Convention: Council of Europe HELP online course made public!

Pharmaceutical crime and MEDICRIME Convention: Council of Europe HELP online course made public!

The falsification of medical products and other similar crimes effectively deny patients the necessary medical treatment and are harmful to the health of individuals, sometimes leading to death. In addition, the circulation of counterfeit (or falsified) medical products undermines public confidence in healthcare systems.

In response to this global threat, the Council of Europe has drawn up the first international treaty against counterfeit medical products and similar crimes involving threats to public health, the MEDICRIME Convention. The Convention establishes several offences such as the manufacturing, supplying, offering to supply and trafficking in counterfeit medical products, as well as the unauthorised manufacturing or supplying of medicinal products and the marketing of medical devices that do not comply with conformity requirements.

At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is posing unprecedented challenges to the health sector, extreme vigilance is needed against falsified medical products. Faced with this threat, member States can rely on the MEDICRIME Convention to safeguard public health and target the criminal behaviours of those who, like criminal networks, take advantage of the current crisis and loopholes in the health systems. For instance, the MEDICRIME Committee has already issued in April 2021 an Advice on the application of the MEDICRIME Convention in the context of counterfeit COVID-19 vaccines and contributed to a statement on COVID-19 and vaccines: ensuring equitable access to vaccination during the current and future pandemics issued by the Council of Europe Committee on Bioethics.

The Council of Europe HELP online course on Pharmaceutical crime and the MEDICRIME Convention is aimed at assisting legal professionals to appropriately address pharmaceutical crime.

In particular, the course helps understand what pharmaceutical crime is, how it is investigated, and how different agencies and individuals are cooperating in combating this specific form of criminality. It also gives an introduction on the Council of Europe MEDICRIME Convention and its mode of operation.

The course is primarily intended for legal professionals (judges, prosecutors, lawyers and law-enforcement officials). It can also serve as a useful tool for policy makers, other civil servants and university students.

The course was produced in 2016 and launched as a tutored course only. It has now been published in self-learning format in English only.

The overall length of the course is 6 hours. The course includes the following modules:

Introduction

Module 1: What is pharmaceutical crime?

  • Pharmaceutical crime – the problem. Dangers of counterfeit medicines
  • What is the reasoning behind the MEDICRIME Convention?
  • What are medical products?
  • Associated crimes

Module 2: Offences under the MEDICRIME Convention

  • Before the MEDICRIME Convention
  • Criminal sanctions – what does the MEDICRIME Convention say?

Module 3: Investigating a pharmaceutical crime

  • New methods and techniques
  • Investigation tools
  • Medicine regulation and specialists
  • Investigative aids and teamwork

Module 4: International cooperation

  • Forms of co-operation. How does international co-operation work?
  • Human rights and international cooperation
  • Other general principles

In order to access the course you will need to create an account on the HELP online platform (follow this video to see how). Then you can access directly the online course in English Course: Pharmaceutical crime and the MEDICRIME Convention (coe.int). At the end you can print out the so-called HELP ‘statement of accomplishment’ - an automatically generated document that attests that you have completed the self-learning course and can be saved in electronic format or printed out.

Strasbourg 12 May 2021
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