Online and out of reach
 |
 |
 |
One thing the participants did agree on was that sales of counterfeit medicines through the internet were a problem out of all proportion to any infiltration of the legal supply chain. For Matias, this was a problem the Commission could not afford to ignore.
A study by the German Federal Criminal Police Office found that 80% of counterfeit medicines penetrated the EU supply chain through the internet, noted Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, the MEP who introduced the meeting.
Rather than leaving the issue to the member states, the Commission's proposal should urge national authorities to enforce domestic law on internet drug sales, Chatzimarkakis suggested. Member states that permitted online pharmacies should establish lists of secure websites.
But as Chave pointed out, even the kind of certification systems run in Germany and the UK are prone to fabrication. Measures to "open up the field to legitimate, registered, certified internet pharmacies" risked creating a culture of online sales, he warned. The result would be a net increase in the volume of counterfeit drugs in circulation.
Other than certification schemes and more rigorous national controls, little light was thrown on how the Commission might tackle this most elusive of criminal activities, although Ricketts, did suggest that anti-counterfeiting technology might in the long run empower patients to check the authenticity of medicines for themselves.
As Claudia Glasow, head of legal affairs at German company Ursapharm Arzneimittel, pointed out, the best bet is either to prevent internet trade in medicines or to improve restrictions within that trade through some form of "fluent" traceability.