Mobilization against counterfeit medicines

War has been declared on counterfeit medicines, which are ever more common, especially in poor countries. Some contraband medicines either do not contain any "active principles" at all or contain them in insufficient quantity, or else they conceal hazardous substances. They are also likely to lead to drug resistance on the part of serious pathogenic agents. The manufacture, sale or possession of these products is now to be considered a crime that is to be vigorously prosecuted.

It seems as if the ratification by many European countries of the Medicrime Convention, due to be signed by the member states of the Council of Europe during 2011, and arrangements set out in the 2009 Cotonou Declaration adopted by several African heads of state are finally to bear fruit, not to mention the commitments made at their recent summit by the heads of State and governments of the International Organization of the French-Speaking World (OIF). 

Africa on the front line

According to the WHO, the number of counterfeit medicines in circulation grew by 1000% between 2000 and 2007, and the trade is 25 times more lucrative than that of their legal counterparts. In the war that has now been declared on counterfeit medicines, the poor regions, and Africa in particular, are in the firing line. Among the important milestones in their mobilization is the Cotonou Declaration, adopted on October 12, 2009 by a large number of African political leaders, including several ruling heads of state. This forms part of the framework of the International Mobilization Campaign against counterfeit medicines, an initiative of the Chirac Foundation set up by former French president Jacques Chirac. The Campaign aims principally to facilitate access to generic medicines by the poor, to train technical staff, to equip laboratories for monitoring, and to encourage the creation of legal frameworks to pursue traffickers. 

Two African presidents, Thomas Surplus Yayi of Benin and Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso, both signatories of the Cotonou Declaration, then submitted a resolution to the OIF summit in Montreux on 23 – 24 October 2010, which was duly adopted. The member states of the OIF thus committed themselves to taking measures that would "result in the creation of lawful instruments for the fight against counterfeit medicines and falsified medical products". 

On 6 December last year, at the most recent European Development Days organized by the European Commission in Brussels, Presidents Thomas Surplus Yaye and Blaise Compraoré, together with the General Secretary of the ACP Group, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, appeared alongside Jacques Chirac and Louis Michel, co-president of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, to promote access to quality medicines and good governance in the field of health. 

On the following day, December 7, the Council of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted the Medicrime Convention, which will, when ratified, be the first international legal instrument to criminalize the falsification of medicines and medical products.

Hegel Goutier