Brussels, 15/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - Jean-François Dehecq, President of Sanofi-Aventis, explained to EUROPE how bogus medicines have managed to spread throughout Europe today. He said: “When one finds tens of thousands of boxes of Plavix (Ed: A medicine produced by Sanofi-Aventis to protect against thrombosis) to be used for double-blind clinical trials in England against our product and that one sees it is really a placebo with little or no active element, one can wonder how people would react if they knew that they were running this kind of risk up to and including during clinical trials”. Mr Dehecq went on to explain that there is a very simple reason for this: “The distribution systems no longer come under any control”. He stressed that “this famous product came from Germany where there are several thousand importers that can import medicines without even being pharmacists (…). They import them as if they were importing second-hand cars or beef. They buy medicines just like that (…) anywhere, and also have the possibility of repackaging them”. And, as soon as a product has entered Europe, without having been controlled, it is free to move about anywhere, everywhere, Mr Dehecq said, taking the view that “one must take a completely new look at the reliability of the distribution chain in Europe”.
Such problems have led laboratories like Pfizer and Sanofi-Aventis to restrict the number of their distributors, taking the risk of being attacked for refusal to sell and/or for hampering the free movement of goods. However, Jean-François Dehecq says, this today is the only way possible to ensure minimum patient security. He went on to explain: “We are not speaking money here. In money terms, it is negligible. It has nothing to do with parallel imports which just swallow up money - €4-6 billion annually for European industry. Here, it is about something else: it is about gigantic risks for public health (…). For a long while, everyone wanted to cover everything up so as not to frighten patients. Now, we have come to a situation - mainly because of the internet that is an ideal machine for putting counterfeit products on the market - in which the awareness of politicians and public powers has gained in magnitude”.
So what can be done? “First of all, the distribution chain must be better controlled and a brake should no doubt be put on free movement. Then, police services should join forces, first at the level of Europe (Ed.: he spoke of Interpol and Europol) but we must not stop at Europe. We are faced with global problems and an international convention under the UN aegis is therefore needed to combat counterfeiting. I believe that Europe should take a leading role with a view to developing an international instrument. And there must be penalties: today, the chap who counterfeits a medicinal product by not putting any active ingredient into it, meaning that patients run a fatal risk, or who puts toxic elements into his invention, is not punished any more than the bloke who makes a counterfeit t-shirt. This can't be serious. We should look at criminal law again”, said Jean-François Dehecq, pointing out that “it is not very complicated to stick the coal bacillus in tablets in free circulation”. He added that the terrorist risk should be taken more seriously. (oj)