Fight the Fakes campaign officially gets underway

10 international organisations have joined forces in a new campaign - called Fight the Fakes - that aims to boost cooperation in the war against counterfeit medicines.

At the official launch of the campaign in Geneva, the founder organisations pledged to "raise awareness about the dangers of fake medicines by giving a voice to those who have been personally impacted and sharing the stories of those working to put a stop to this threat to public health."

The alliance includes the following groups, which span healthcare professionals, disease-specific organisations, product-development partnerships, foundations, international financing institutions, as well as the research-based pharmaceutical industry:

• International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA)
• US Pharmacopeial Convention (USP)
• World Medical Association (WMA)
• World Heart Federation (WHF)
• The Fondation Chirac
• The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
• International Council of Nurses (ICN)
• International Institute of Research Against Counterfeit Medicines (IRACM)
• Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV)
• NCD Alliance

The Fight the Fakes campaign is designed to raise awareness about the "under-reported, yet growing threat" of fake medicines, which "trick patients into believing they are receiving genuine medicines while they are getting deceitful products that could cause further illness, disability or even death."

"In launching this new campaign, partners share the belief that to address this public health threat, public awareness and coordinated actions among all actors involved in the manufacturing and distribution of medicines are vital," said the partners in a joint statement.

Dr. Stephen Opuni, chief executive of the Ghana Food and Drugs Authority, said: "It's a global problem and we all need to come on board in fighting together, and once we're able to do that we are going to make some real strides globally in fighting counterfeit medicines."