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Workshop on substandard and falsified medicines in London

The Criminal Law Division took part in a Workshop on substandard and falsified medicines in London.  The event was held on 27-28 March 2018 and was co-organised by Harvard Global Health Institute and The Brazzaville Foundation. It was a private meeting of academic, policy makers and other leaders with the objective of identifying both key challenges facing the reduction and, ultimately, elimination of false and substandard medicines as well as finding innovative solutions in the fight against this phenomenon.

The MEDICRIME Convention, as a unique legal binding instrument, was at the core of the discussions.

London 27/03/2018
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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