EDQM publishes 'medicrime' guides

The European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and Healthcare (EDQM) has made a new guide available on its website to help counter counterfeit medicines and other forms of pharmaceutical crime.

The document, called Counterfeiting of medical products and similar crimes: a strategic approach to assist states in protecting the public health of their citizens, is available alongside two older (2011) publications on counterfeit medicines focusing on practical advice and risk communication.

The latest report is a tool to assist policymakers in Council of Europe member states to protect citizens from fake medicines, and suggests a key move towards this is ratification of the CoE's Medicrime convention, which was first drawn up in 2011.

This publication includes a strategy to assist authority officials to revise legislation on medical products, public health and criminal law in order to protect public health, according to the EDQM, which has also set up a page on its website on counterfeit medicines
 
Also included is a flow chart and practical checklist on the revision process, as well as to increase awareness on the role of appropriate structures, systems, procedures and powers.

"The strategy will help setting up networking between the public and the private sectors and other stakeholders committed to fight Medicrime," said the agency.

Other projects at the EDQM on counterfeit medicines include its eTACT traceability pilot, which aims to set up a pan-European system to track medicines from manufacturer to patient, even if products are ordered over the Internet, as well as a project to develop a series of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) 'fingerprints' that can be used during inspection testing.