EU takes steps to protect supply chain against counterfeit medicines

Given what is describes as "an alarming increase of medicinal products detected in the European Union which are falsifications in relation to  their identity, history or source," the Commission has proposed action  to protect the legal distribution chain from the infiltration of fake  medicines. This will help to ensure confidence of distributors, health  care professionals and patients in the medicinal products they trade,  prescribe and purchase in the legal supply chain.

Falsified drugs are usually unsafe, inefficient or low-quality products  as they generally do not include the correct, or any, active ingredient  or are not manufactured at the declared sites. The number of detected  false products - or counterfeit drugs - is on a steady rise. In addition  the risk profile has changed. While previous figures indicated that the  risk related more to so-called "lifestyle" drugs, there are strong  indications that the number of false representations of innovative and  life-saving medicines is increasing (Marketletters passim). Moreover, to  increase the volume of fake medicines, these products are channelled  through the legal supply chain towards patients.

What are the key measures proposed?