Brussels, 22/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 16 December, the European Commission announced today the results of the "MEDI-FAKE" action, which targeted customs control on illegal medicines entering the EU. On the basis of a risk profile disseminated by the Commission, customs from the 27 Member States put special focus over a two month period on coordinated action to stop illegal medicines from entering the European Union.
Among the products which were intercepted were antibiotics, anti-cancer, anti-malaria and anti-cholesterol medicines, as well as painkillers, Viagra and drug precursors. This first EU coordinated action had tremendous results, with more than 34 million illegal medicines seized. It also highlighted a number of ways of improving the fight against trafficking in illegal, dangerous or counterfeit goods. It paves the way for future similar actions.
Exceptional results have been achieved in many Member States, most notably Belgium, France, the United Kingdom and Spain. The range and number of illegal medicines stopped far exceeds any previous results. Customs at Brussels airport registered the biggest seizure of illegal medicines ever recorded in Europe: 2.200.000 counterfeit medicine tablets were seized, of which 1.600.000 were painkillers and 600.000 were anti malaria pills.
This MEDI-FAKE action is the first Priority Control Action to be implemented under the Customs Risk management Framework and introduced a better risk information sharing mechanism and set uniform Community risk-selection criteria for controls, supported by computerised systems. (O.J./trans/rh)