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Senegal and Cameroon: new requests for accession to the MEDICRIME convention

On 13 December 2023, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe invited Senegal and Cameroon to sign and ratify the Council of Europe Convention on counterfeiting of medical products and similar offences threatening public health, know as the MEDICRIME convention. This invitation is valid for five years from its adoption.

These requests to join the MEDICRIME convention demonstrate the strong desire of these West and Central African states to strengthen the fight against the scourge of falsified medicines, of which their populations are victims. The Council of Europe welcomes this growing mobilization of African states in favour of the MEDICRIME Convention.

The invitation to Senegal to join the Convention represents the culmination of long-term work launched by the Senegalese authorities and supported by close collaboration between the OPALS Foundation (Pan-African Health Organization), the Humanitarian Center for Pharmacy Professions (CHMP) with the Secretariat of the Committee of the Parties to the MEDICRIME convention.

The OPALS Foundation, the CHMP and the Secretariat of the Committee of the Parties paid a visit to Dakar on 31 May 2023 to meet the Senegalese authorities, in particular Madame Aïssata TALL SALL, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Senegalese Abroad, on this subject, on the sidelines of the International Pharmaceutical Forum.

 

Picture: Audience with Mrs. Aïssata TALL SALL, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Senegalese Abroad, and the joint delegation of the Council of Europe, the OPALS Foundation and the CHMP, under the scientific authority of Professor Gentilini.

Strasbourg 13 December 2023
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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