OECS Secretariat, Castries St. Lucia, 2nd June 2008: Law enforcement and health officials from St. Lucia will meet on Thursday 5th June 2008 to launch the first in a series of national workshops in the OECS aimed at combating counterfeit medicines. Talks will focus on the magnitude and dangers of counterfeit medicines.

OECS/PPS has continuously expressed concerns about the growing global trend of counterfeit medicines, and warns that no country is immune to such a scourge: “You might recall that a top food and drug administrator was recently executed for accepting bribes and corruption with regards to facilitating counterfeit medicines in China. It’s a huge problem. We now believe that about 10 % of global sales of medicines is now expected to be counterfeit. This translates into approximately 40 billion US dollars annually. So many of us may be innocent victims receiving counterfeit medicines and sixty percent of all counterfeit medicines have no active ingredient.”  There have been numerous international examples of death as a result of counterfeit medicines. In one case, approximately two thousand, five hundred children died after 26 thousand persons were injected with fake meningitis vaccines. 

Head of the OECS/PPS Francis Burnett agrees that an effective regulatory system for managing pharmaceutical supplies will encourage new and sustained investment: “It erodes the confidence in our public health care system that a patient who is expecting to receive relief for his complaint might receive a counterfeit drug with no active ingredient. The person’s medical condition may deteriorate, the patient may lose confidence in his practitioner and or the practitioner may prescribe an alternative regimen which may be more expensive or has more adverse reactions. The OECS countries should be able to attract foreign investment of pharmaceutical manufacturing in OECS Countries if we have a good reputation for combating counterfeit medicines. It’s very important for us to have a clean image.”

To help further address the situation, customs and law enforcement officials will exchange ideas with other stakeholders on a training program for detecting counterfeit medicines at ports. The OECS/PPS is convinced that a coordinated and inter-sectoral approach by law enforcement officers, health officials, the judiciary and civil society is necessary to combat the dangers of counterfeit medicines.

OECS/PPS’ collaborating partner in the fight against counterfeit medicines, Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) will also address the meeting.