The Partnership for Safe Medicines
Weekly UpdateDecember 21, 2010
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  Partnership for Safe Medicines Launches You Tube Channel



Partnership for Safe Medicines launches YouTube channel with entire set of videos from Interchange conference online for free


The Partnership for Safe Medicines has launched a Safe Medicines YouTube Channel. At http://www.youtube.com/user/SafeMedicines, 23 videos encompassing the entire Safe Medicines Interchange conference on October 8th, 2010, are available for those that missed, or wish to recapture, the conference speakers. Notably, Commissioner of the FDA, Dr. Margaret Hamburg, delivered a keynote address on the safety and law enforcement issues of counterfeit medications.

Other speakers include Rick Roberts, victim of fake drugs, who tells his harrowing story about receiving fake medicines for a life-threatening disease from his regular pharmacist, and Bejon Misra, trustee of the Consumer Online Foundation and founder of PSM India. Bejon gave the luncheon talk on spurious drugs in India and consumer and government efforts to curb them.


In addition, Walt Bogdanich from the New York Times, Marsha Millonig, from the American Pharmacists Association, and Dr. Salvatore J. Giorgianni, of Men's Health Network, spoke on a panel about the victims of counterfeit drugs, moderated by Marv Shepherd, President of the Partnership for Safe Medicines.


Also available for viewing, Dr. Bryan Liang, Vice President of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, moderated a panel entitled, "Who's Benefiting from Unsafe Drugs?" with Charlie Cichon, of the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators, Special Agent Nancy Kennedy from the Food & Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations, Rob Hill of the Drug Enforcement Agency, and Jeffrey Gren, from the U.S. Department of Commerce.


Tom Kubic, President and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI), moderated a panel entitled "Who's Making Progress Against Counterfeit Drugs?" with Dr. Michael Green, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hugo Bonar, of the Irish Medicines Board, Richard Halverson, from U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, and John Gray, from the Healthcare Distribution Management Association, also available on youtube.com.


Top News

Internet Companies Fight Fake Online Pharmacies

Victoria Espinel, the White House intellectual property enforcement coordinator, announced on December 14, 2010, that major American internet companies are helping to establish a non-profit organization targeting illegal Internet pharmacies in support of White House efforts. Companies participating in the effort include Google, Microsoft Corp., Yahoo! Inc., MasterCard Inc., Visa Inc., American Express Co., GoDaddy.com Inc., Neustar Inc., eNom Inc. and EBay Inc.'s Paypal Inc, reported Bloomberg. The participants are credit-card payment networks, advertisers and companies that control domain names. These are the building blocks of any online business, including illegal online pharmacies. (Partnership for Safe Medicines, December 15, 2010; Link here)

World News

European Governments Negotiate Fake Drug Directive

The European Parliament and the Council are negotiating a directive on counterfeit medicines intended to strengthen law enforcement. The agreement's provisions are not yet public, but it is reported that sanctions and unified safety-mechanisms were on the table. In addition, the directive proposes the requirement of anti-counterfeiting technologies, like packaging serial numbers or seals upon legitimate medications, and the increase of security in the distribution chain. In addition, stricter inspection standards were discussed, reported Europolitics. Marisa Matias, Portugese delegate, sought criminal sanctions against the fake "that should be at least equivalent to those usually applied to narcotics offences." (Partnership for Safe Medicines, December 20, 2010; Link here)


Drug Cargo Hijacked in Baltimore

A medicine delivery driver was abducted and robbed at gunpoint while delivering medications to pharmacies in West Baltimore on December 13th. At a routine delivery stop at 9 a.m. in the 2000 block of W. Pratt St., outside the tiny Westside Pharmacy and Wellness Center, in West Baltimore, MD, three thieves forced the driver, at gunpoint, into the back of the delivery truck, and drove it to an unknown location where the suspects unloaded about 80 crates of pharmaceutical goods, reported the Baltimore Sun. Police called the planned robbery "incredibly thought-out." (Partnership for Safe Medicines, December 21, 2010; Link here)

 

Japan to Raise Consumer Awareness of Counterfeits

Japan's Patent Office (JPO) announced an "Anti-Counterfeiting Campaign" on December 10, in cooperation with the Intellectual Property Policy Headquarters and related ministries to raise public awareness of the risk of counterfeit products. As consumers purchase more products from online venues using mobile phones, the Ministry is warning consumers of the risks of counterfeits because the distribution of counterfeit goods via the Internet is increasing, says the Ministry. Beginning on December 10, six thousand posters will be displayed across Japan, in government offices, companies and institutions. In addition, a major media campaign involving print, television and web media will be instituted. (Partnership for Safe Medicines, December 17, 2010; Link here)

Events

ExL Pharma's Life Sciences Serialization & Traceability For Brand Management

When: Jan 24 - 25 2011

Where: Philadelphia, PA

Description: A summit with the key-stakeholders from the pharmaceutical supply chain to discuss a strategy for addressing three different, yet intertwined, areas - counterfeiting, brand protection and regulatory compliance. With international requirements already in place in countries like Turkey and France and potential federal mandates on the horizon here in the U.S., development of a mandatory compliant (fully serialized and pedigree-ready) supply chain is on the radar. View the full conference program.


About the Partnership for Safe Medicines
The Partnership for Safe Medicines is a group of organizations and individuals that have policies, procedures, or programs to protect consumers from counterfeit or contraband medicines. For more information, please visit SafeMedicines.org.