Non-Profit Initiatives: Partnership for Safe Medicines

Non-Profit Initiatives

Problems of counterfeit, contraband and otherwise unsafe medicines require participation and collaboration among many sectors, including public health professionals, patients, the business community, and academic experts. This page provides a guide to those organizations. For a more exhaustive list of these organizations’ policy positions, please visit our Position Papers page in the expert section. If you would like to add an initiative to this page, please contact us.

• Fraud Prevention Institute. The Fraud Prevention Institute (FPI) is a public not-for-profit organization dedicated to provide the research, education, and testing required to prevent fraud and identity theft in public commerce.
  See FPI home page and an essay on anti-counterfeiting: FDA’s Placebo for Counterfeit Drugs,” by J. Alan Cates.
• Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group.
  GACG maintains a calendar of upcoming anti-coutnerfeiting meetings and has published studies on the links between counterfeitng and organized crime.
• International Chamber of Commerce has a special Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals Initiative.
• International Council of Nurses. ICN, together with the International Federation of Pharmacists and the U.S.P. (see below) has created a visual inspection kit for the examination of counterfeit medicines. ICN dedicated International Nurses’ Day to counterfeit drugs (International Nurses Day 2005) and developed a visual inspection toolkit: Nurses for Patienty Safety: Targeting Counterfeit and Substandard Medicines. Information and Action Toolkit .
• International Federation of Pharmacists (FIP). With ICN and USP, they released a TOP RESOURCE: A Tool for Visual Inspection of Medicines. See also FIP’s main page on anti-counterfeiting, their statement on counterfeiting here, and a presentation of Peter Kielgast, pharmacist and Past President FIP, at International Federation of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers conference, 11/22/04.
• National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators. While drug diversion often occurs within the protected supply chain, counterfeiting and sub-par medicines are a major concern for these investigators as well. NADDI’s homepage contains John Burke’s overview on Drug Diversion.
• Pharmaceutical Security Institute. The PSI is a not-for-profit association, membership organization dedicated to protecting the public health, sharing Information on the counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals, initiating Enforcement Actions through the Appropriate Authorities. See their homepage here.
• United States Pharmacopeia. Monographs and Publications, including: Mekong Countries Move on Fakes; SEAM Conference (2003); Drug Quality Matrix and Poster; Identification of Counterfeit and Substandard Fixed Drug Combination Tuberculosis Drugs to Prevent the Emergence of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis.