Intended for healthcare professionals

Letters Cracking down on fake medicines

European Union has the Falsified Medicines Directive

BMJ 2012; 345 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e8356 (Published 20 December 2012) Cite this as: BMJ 2012;345:e8356
  1. Tom Taaffe, pharmacist1
  1. 1Community Pharmacy, Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, Republic of Ireland
  1. thomas.taaffe{at}outlook.com

Attaran and colleagues made no mention of a current important European Union directive: the so called Falsified Medicines Directive.1 The directive is intended to ensure that all packs of at risk drugs are verified through a central EU data repository. It also provides measures to control online sales of drugs, to secure points all along the supply chain, and to secure the quality and safety of starting materials.2 3

The authors’ proposal of a global treaty to bring the disparate strands together is worthy of closer scrutiny.

Notes

Cite this as: BMJ 2012;345:e8356

Footnotes

  • Competing interests: None declared.

References

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