EU blames Switzerland for surge in fake medicines

Counterfeit medicine seized on entry to the 27 EU member states jumped by 51% in 2007 compared with 2006, according to the European Commission.

Although China remained the main source of counterfeit goods in general, accounting for almost 60% of seizures, EU Taxation and Customs Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs said he was happy with the progress recently made with China to strengthen international co-operation with the aim of stopping this problem at its source.

"The EU-China Summit in November will finalise an EU-China customs co-operation agreement," the Commissioner added.

Surprisingly, Switzerland topped the list of countries exporting fake medicines, followed by India and the United Arab Emirates -respectively 40%, 35% and 15% of the total amount seized by EU countries.

"I was shocked when I read the statistics," Kovacs said. "The Swiss name carries a certain guarantee for consumers. It is therefore even more dangerous for the counterfeit products to come from Switzerland than from China."

He initially assumed Switzerland was being used as a transit stop for the huge consignments of fake medicines but it turned out they originated there, though "certainly not from one of the giants of the pharmaceutical industry".

The problem, which Kovacs believes to be a one-off occurrence, related to five consignments of analgesics containing morphine coming from Switzerland into Germany by road, representing 1.6 billion pills.

The products were manufactured in Switzerland and were stopped because of a patent infringement procedure rather than a question over the ingredients themselves.

The number of counterfeit medicines seized generally by EU member states shot up from 2.5 million in 2006 to more than 4 million in 2007.

The Commissioner discounted the notion that fake medicines are being produced in legal factories in India. Countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Tunisia are probably used as a transit stop, often with the purpose of hiding the real origin of the goods.

Medicines for erectile dysfunction continue to be the most popular counterfeited medicines. More serious drugs such as those for heart conditions, cholesterol, hypertension and osteoporosis are also found as counterfeit medicines, the Commission said.

Kovacs commended the industry for its co-operation, with more than 10,000 applications (7,000 in 2006) filled in by the industry to request customs actions in cases where there is a suspicion that products are being counterfeited. According to the report, this cooperation resulted in 80% of the customs interventions in 2007.

"One of my priority objectives remains to achieve progress in this field," he said. "Therefore, I welcome the close co-operation between industry and customs to stop suspicious shipments of counterfeited goods at the border before they disappear in the internal market. Due to technical improvements and the use of more sophisticated ways in producing counterfeit goods, input from industry to detect them is vital for the customs."

The Commission is expected to issue some guidelines before the end of the year to improve this co-operation.