Romania Conference Raises Alarm on Fake Medicine Trade

More than 120 counterfeit medicines experts from Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine and Slovakia gathered on October 20-21, 2010 in Bucharest, Romania to increase efforts in the fight against the dangerous trade of fake medicines estimated to be worth EUR 54 billion (USD 74 billion) worldwide in 2010.

The specialists said that Eastern Europe is one of the major routes in the fake medicines trade, the same holding true for heroin and other illegal drugs. The experts, however, stressed that most countries in the region have adopted stricter regulations during the recent years and stated that in Romania, fake drugs smugglers have for the first time been sentenced to prison this year.

The experts raised concerns about the proliferation of fake drugs on the Internet, 50 percent of which are counterfeit, according to the World Health Organization. Some of these drugs contain no active ingredients, some contain 8,000 times the required amount, and some contain life-threatening substances such as arsenic, lead-based paint, brick dust or floor wax.

For more information, please contact Marius Ciobanasu at our Romania office.

Source: French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP)