Across the Pond: Counterfeit Medicines in the UK

Lately, we’ve posted a lot about counterfeit drug issues in the U.S., as well as our recommendations to government agencies on how to better protect Americans from this growing threat to public health.

Other developed nations are addressing the same problems.

In January, the United Kingdom’s (UK) Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) published a short report on measures underway in the UK to address counterfeit drugs, which includes an emphasis on awareness, addressing online pharmacies, anti-counterfeiting technologies and legislation.

Awareness
POST notes that in addition to issuing alerts when it identifies a public health risk, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) staffs a 24-hour hotline for reporting counterfeits and encourages all agencies from police to pharmacies to report suspect drugs. MHRA is working on public education campaigns and private industry is also doing its part to spread awareness about the dangers of counterfeit drugs, including the ongoing campaign run by Pfizer.

Online Pharmacies
The private and public sectors are also working on raising awareness of illicit online pharmacies. POST noted that the European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines (EAASM) estimates that 62 percent of Web sites that conceal their physical address supply counterfeit drugs.

To combat counterfeit drugs online, EEASM has proposed that internet search and credit card companies bar unauthorized sites from search results and impose extra checks on transactions. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain has an accreditation system that identifies legitimate online pharmacies with a logo.

Anti-Counterfeiting Technologies

POST also noted the promise in anti-counterfeiting technology, including tools already in use, such as:

• Specialized printing and security inks
• Holograms
• Watermarks
• Tamper-evident packaging

And while packaging has been known to be mimicked by counterfeiters, POST wrote that emerging technologies at the supply level—such as unique identification numbers, 2-D barcodes and Radio Frequency Identification tagging under trial in the U.S.—are “widely supported but raise[s] issues of costs and agreement on a harmonized system for use in the global supply chain.

Policy and Legislation
According to POST, MHRA is “seeking to raise tariffs on counterfeit offenses and is consulting on policies to improve the security of the regulated national supply chain. In the broader European Union (EU), POST wrote that the European Commission outlined proposals to tackle counterfeit drugs in 2006, and will likely approve a directive on falsified medicines in 2010. Proposals to prevent counterfeits from entering the supply chain include:

• Tighter import requirements for medicines and ingredients from outside the EU, including more robust inspections and enforcement
• Using mandatory safety features (like individual product codes or seals) on high-risk medicines
• More rigorous inspection of wholesale

Speaking into drug importation back in November, I noted that our likenesses and strong historical connection with the British can provide a false sense of security about the UK’s supply chain for prescription drugs.

However, reports like those from POST remind us that no country is truly safe from counterfeit medicines—and that we must continue toward the goal of mitigating this threat from all angles.