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@ Council of Europe

An Informal Session on the MEDICRIME Convention has been addressed to the Permanent Representations/Diplomatic and consular missions of member States of the Council of Europe, observer States and non-member States signatories of the MEDICRIME Convention.

Aimed at introducing the legal provisions included in the MEDICRIME Convention, this session is part of the multiple activities developed by the Criminal Law Co-operation Unit to promote this criminal-law instrument. The judicial, health and law-enforcement perspectives were represented at this meeting by representatives from Eurojust, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency from the United Kingdom and Europol.

The concern of falsified medical products and their links to transnational organised criminal groups was tackled during this meeting. The discussion among participants showed that improving the combat against the falsification of medical products requires intensifying of the ratification of the MEDICRIME Convention and the adoption of rules on criminal liability against the falsification of medical products into national criminal legislation, and its rigorous implementation.

Possibilities for technical co-operation were also raised during this meeting.

Strasbourg, France 22 November 2019
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Covid 19

At a time when the Covid-19 epidemic is posing unprecedented challenges to the health sector, the Council of Europe calls on governments to be extremely vigilant against counterfeit or falsified medicines and medical products. Faced with this threat, states can rely on the MEDICRIME Convention to safeguard public health and target the criminal behaviour of those who, like criminal networks, take advantage of the loopholes in our systems and of the current crisis.

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"In recent years, occurrences of counterfeiting of medical products and similar crimes have increased worldwide. These crimes endanger public health, and affect patients and their confidence in the legal marketplace.

Even more profitable than drug trafficking, this new form of crime has an undeniable advantage for criminals: they go largely unpunished or receive only mild sanctions. Even when states take strict measures to regulate the production and distribution of medical products and devices, these measures often prove insufficient, especially when criminal networks find gaps in national legislations allowing them to make substantial profits at the expense of people’s lives and health. The MEDICRIME Convention was drafted to protect vulnerable patients and their right to safe access to medicines of appropriate quality, and to fight against organised crime. As the first and only international treaty dealing with this problem, the convention aims at prosecuting the counterfeiting of medical products and similar crimes, protecting the rights of victims and promoting national and international co-operation."

Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni
Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe