Verheugen says EC deeply concerned about counterfeiting

EU industry commissioner Guenter Verheugen may have lost control of pharmaceutical policy development in the recent reshuffle but had plenty to say about medicines counterfeiting in a recent interview with German magazine Die Welt.

In the article he says the number of counterfeits arriving at Europe's borders is "constantly growing," noting that in two months EU customs seized 34 million fake medicines, with the haul including antibiotics, cancer treatments and cholesterol-lowering drugs, in addition to the usual crop of erectile dysfunction products.

The scale of the problem "exceeded our worst fears," said Verheugen, whose directorate was responsible for drawing up the 'pharmaceutical package' of legislative proposals in December 2008 that included a draft directive on counterfeiting of medicines.

The Commission has been criticised for not including Internet supply of counterfeits in its proposals, as well as relying too heavily on technological features such as serialised coding of medicines, which by some estimates will carry a price tag estimated at €10-€12bn.

Some have suggested that the problem could be better addressed via the use of more 'mundane' approaches, such as increased penalties, raising awareness of the problem among the public and healthcare professionals and setting out clear responsibilities and liabilities for the actors in the pharmaceutical supply chain.

MEP Marisa Matias, who is drafting the European Parliament's position on the draft directive that is due for completion any day now, has also been vocal on the need to extend its legal basis to cover not only the internal market elements of the EU Treaty but also those related to public health.

Responsibility for the pharmaceutical package has been transferred from DG Industry to DG Sanco (Health and Consumer Affairs) under John Dalli.