WHO to bolster fight against counterfeit medicine

Members of the World Health Organization (WHO) agreed Wednesday in Buenos Aires to strengthen regulations to fight counterfeit medicines, the organization said. Representatives from 76 WHO members also pledged to outline actions and policies to control and prevent the adulteration of products and guarantee safer, better quality medications at a meeting aiming to establish a mechanism against substandard and counterfeit medical products, it said in a statement. To that end, 200 participants to the meeting, including WHO General Director Margaret Chen, agreed on a work plan that establishes the need for cooperation among governments to share best practices and experiences against counterfeit medical products. During the meeting, the participants also agreed to form a WTO global committee to monitor the plan's implementation. "The committee includes the improvement of national regulatory agencies to strengthen their capacity and quality control of laboratories through policies and legal instruments," the WHO said. The WHO also said that actions to educate consumers, and healthcare and industry professionals should be defined to avoid counterfeit medicine. The First Meeting of the Member State Mechanism on Substandard and Counterfeit Medical Products, organized by the WHO and the Argentinean Health Ministry, ended Wednesday with a call to combat the global health scourge that affects millions of people. "Access to ealthcare should be linked to access to safe and affordable products," said Chen during the meeting. The World Health Assembly decided at its 65th session in May to create the Member State Mechanism on Substandard, Spurious, Falsely Labeled, Falsified, Counterfeit Medical Products to strengthen international collaboration on strategies against counterfeit medicines. The production, distribution and sale of counterfeit medicine is a problem that affects access to proper healthcare as a global public good and endangers the health of people in all regions, said the WHO. The WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system.