Counterfeit medicines threat is real, parallel traders deny they are "weak link"

A Brussels, Belgium-hosted conference organized by two think-tanks into the threat in Europe of counterfeit medi-cines was overshadowed by a row over parallel trade. The event, titled: A false sense of security: the growing threat of counterfeit pharmaceutical products, included speakers from Canada, Hungary, the UK and USA, and was organ-ized by the Brussels-based Center for the New Europe and the San Francisco, USA-based Pacific Research Institute.

Before the conference could begin, organizers read out a statement clarifying their position on parallel trade within the European Union, to the effect that the term "profiteers masquerading as pharmacists" used in the conference program was not intended to apply to all parallel traders. This followed a protest by Heinz Kobelt, secretary general of the European Association of Euro-Pharmaceutical Companies and the threat of legal action over what he considered to be a slan-derous attack on EAEPC members. An EAEPC spokes-man told the Marketletter that far from abetting counter-feiting, the organization's members had several times intercepted poor-quality or wrongly packaged drugs. He could not confirm if any fake drugs had been intercepted by EAEPC members.

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