PHA-Exchange> GEN: UN MEETING ENLISTS TECHNOLOGY IN WAR ON MULTI-BILLION-DOLLAR COUNTERFEIT MEDICINE MARKET

[Claudio]

From: "Vern Weitzel" <vern at coombs.anu.edu.au>
A United Nations-backed meeting to combat the multi-billion-dollar market 
for counterfeit medicines
today sought to harness technology in the arsenal of weapons used to crack 
down on the products,
which can promote drug resistant strains of disease, worsen medical 
conditions and kill patients.


“In the case of anti-counterfeiting, the challenges we face are finding 
technologies that cannot
themselves be counterfeited and transferring them to resource poor settings 
at an affordable cost,”
UN World Health Organization
(<"http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2007/pr07/en/index.html">WHO) 
Director-General for
Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals Howard Zucker said.

“While technology alone cannot solve the problem, some of these solutions 
could greatly enhance the
ability to detect and deter the distribution of counterfeit medicines,” he 
added of the measures,
ranging from simple, cheap but relatively easily copied tools like holograms 
to the more complex and
expensive, such as invisible printing and digital watermarks.

Dr. Zucker is chairman of the Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce
(<"http://www.who.int/medicines/services/counterfeit/en/index.html">IMPACT) 
set up by WHO and some
20 partners established last year. Today’s meeting in Prague, Czech 
Republic, brings together more
than 20 technology companies with IMPACT’s Working Group on Technology to 
assess measures to improve
the global prevention, tracking and detection of counterfeit medicines.

Counterfeit medicines are on the rise in most countries but are particularly 
widespread and
dangerous in developing regions. IMPACT's most recent figures estimate their 
sales at 1 per cent in
developed countries to more than 10 per cent in developing nations. But in 
parts of Africa, Asia and
Latin America more than 30 per cent of the medicines on sale can be 
counterfeit, while in some
former Soviet republics, they make up more than 20 per cent of the market.

“Technology can help to contain counterfeiting, but it is not a magic bullet 
that will stop this
problem on its own,” Harvey Bale, Director General of the International 
Federation of Pharmaceutical
Manufacturers & Associations and Chair of the IMPACT Technology Working 
Group, said.

“In looking at these technologies, we will need to assess carefully their 
applicability in
developing countries and their potential synergy with other approaches to 
stop this criminal
activity which can and does result in the deaths of patients.”

Forensic technology, essentially chemical or biological tags built into 
medicines packaging, are
even more secure against copying but significantly more costly and provide 
no visible reassurance to
customers. Serialization or track/trace systems, using technologies such as 
bar codes and radio
frequency identification help provide authentication by allowing a medicine 
to be tracked through
the supply chain. These require an expensive technical infrastructure and 
are not completely immune
to “hacking.”

These technologies cannot by themselves stop counterfeiting. Computer and 
technological illiteracy,
lack of infrastructure and cost may limit the ability of technology to 
deliver solutions, especially
in the poorer parts of the world where the threat posed by counterfeiting is 
greatest.

“Technology needs to be combined with other measures including tough 
legislation and regulations
against counterfeiting, rigorous enforcement, stiffer penalties, and 
diligent surveillance on the
part of the authorities and healthcare providers,” Valerio Reggi, 
coordinator of the IMPACT
secretariat at WHO, said. “IMPACT recognizes this and has complementary 
working groups looking at
how each of these areas can be strengthened and made to work together in 
harmony.”