19% United States
11% Belgium
7% United Kingdom
6% Germany
5% Switzerland
4% Russian Federat...
4% Unknown
4% France
4% Italy
3% Netherlands| 05/2010: Online Sales of Medicines and Falsified Medicines |
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19 May 2010
Online Sales of Medicines and Falsified Medicines - your feedback required
Dear ECPC Member, Patients need to be absolutely sure that the medicines they consume are really the medicines they expect to be. To an increasing extent, many of the medicines produced in various parts of the world are or will become available online. These include products that have a strong scientific basis and products not proven to be effective. Falsified (counterfeit) drugs represent a two-fold risk for patients: they may not contain the proper ingredient in the proper quantity, or they may contain poisonous materials. Treatment with falsified drugs may have fatal consequences for cancer patients.
According to the report, "The Counterfeiting Superhighway by the European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines (EAASM)", there is a 62% probability that a medicine purchased online is counterfeit or substandard. While 38% of the medicines received were genuine branded medicines, 16% were illegal non-EU imports. One in three of the medicines had no information leaflet. 96% of the online pharmacies researched are not licensed and almost as many online pharmacies do not have a named, verifiable pharmacist.
Currently, there is very little data from cancer patients about their direct experience with use of online pharmacies and their exposure to counterfeit medicines. Therefore, although we may have got our message across in the European Parliament level, we need to get our message across at the European Council level and European Commission level. Therefore, it is very important that we bring the voice of the cancer patients through the answers in these questionnaires to the debate.
Without the voice of the cancer patients to provide their input, it will be difficult to change the terms of the debate so that it takes accounts of the cancer patients concerns and support the regulation of online pharmacies. We are convinced that to reach political agreement, some support from the cancer patient community is needed! We urgently need your support to make the cancer patients' voice heard! Can you please support ECPC by answering our short questionnaire? For your further information please look at:
Your help and support with the questionnaire would be greatly appreciated. Together we can put the voice of the cancer patient on the agenda!
Please get in touch with us if you have any question and we'll be happy to discuss, or if you feel we can help you directly taking this forward in your country. Best regards, Jan Geissler, ECPC Director Denis Horgan, ECPC Political Affairs Manager
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