Our Partners ASOP, ASOP EU and CSIP have hosted a seminar on ‘Protecting Patients from Falsified Medicines Online’ in Brussels. Officials from the European Commission, the United States government, as well as key stakeholders from the US and EU healthcare and Internet commerce communities, patient groups, and other non-government organisations were in attendance.
In the EU and the US, there are over 30,000 online pharmacy websites active at any one time – and 97% of these are illegal. Several ways of tackling this issue were discussed during the seminar, from coordinated law enforcement between the EU and the US to increasing public awareness of the risks of buying medicines online. Educating healthcare professionals is also important, as they are in a unique position to understand and influence the way patients buy medicines.
Fight the Fakes is a campaign that seeks to build a global movement of organizations and individuals who will shine light on the negative impact that fake medicines have on people around the globe and to reduce the negative consequences on individuals worldwide.
We are proud to count ASOP, ASOP EU and CSIP amongst our partners to develop action and hold events like this seminar in order to identify ways to combat fake medicines and protect patients all over the world.
