Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-05-Speech-2-323"
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"en.20060905.26.2-323"2
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".
Mr President, I should like to start by expressing my gratitude to Mr Cornillet, whose initiative we have to thank for the fact that we are discussing this important issue today and shall be adopting a resolution on it tomorrow. At the start of his speech, he gave the World Health Organization’s definition of what is to be understood by counterfeiting of medicines. I think that this is very important, as the discussion of this issue could easily become sidetracked, with many of us believing it was about saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to generic medicines. By giving this definition and through his stance, he made it clear that counterfeiting can affect both patented and generic medicines.
As has also been said already, in developed countries it is predominantly so-called lifestyle drugs that are counterfeited, and no doubt we all have our own tales of deleting thousands of spam e-mails offering medicines at low to very low prices.
In developing countries, medicines intended to treat diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/Aids are being counterfeited. Sometimes counterfeit medicines for simple illnesses such as coughs can even cause umpteen deaths, as they have had toxic chemicals added that are normally used in products such as antifreeze. According to the World Health Organization, 30 people died in Cambodia in 1999 after taking counterfeit malaria medicines. There is a whole list of tragic cases such as these and, in addition, there are probably many cases going unreported, as it is not possible to compile statistics on the problem of these criminal activities.
This problem affects all regions of the world, but developing countries of course bear the brunt of the damage. Once again, the reasons are poverty and lack of access to health services. When people cannot afford the medicines they need, they will try to obtain them unofficially at lower prices. For this reason, it is impossible to combat this phenomenon properly without effective health services or affordable medicines.
The measures to enhance intellectual property rights are good and are suitable as part of the strategy, but do not tackle the problem at its roots.
It is important – and I should also like to thank Commissioner Verheugen for stating this so resolutely and specifically – that we assist the countries concerned in building their capacities for producing safe medicines in, and importing safe medicines into, their own countries."@en1
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