Sanofi starts awareness campaign for counterfeit drugs

French drugmaker Sanofi has started an advertising campaign on Air France flights to highlight the risks of counterfeit medicines.

As part of the campaign, an educational film (see below) will be shown throughout the month of  December 2012 on board long-haul Air France  flights to and from North America, Latin America,  Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, in the hope of warning more than 4m passengers about the risks of buying drugs from dubious sources.

The awareness messages will also appear in Air France Magazine and the Air France airport lounges, said the pharma company.




"One of Sanofi’s absolute priorities is to ensure  that patients have  access to  safe and  quality medicines," commented Philippe Peyre, senior vice president and general secretary at Sanofi. 

The drugmaker said its team of internal experts have been involved in the fight against counterfeit medicines for several years, and to date has focused its resources on technological interventions to ensure the protection and traceability of its products, as well as monitoring and collecting information on counterfeiting of its products.

The company set up its Central Anti-Counterfeit  Laboratory  in Tours, France, five years ago as a tool available for authorities in the fight against counterfeit  medicines. Since its inception the lab has analyzed over 20,000 suspicious products.