WHO's working group on SSFFC medicines (substandard, spurious, falsely-labelled, falsified and counterfeit) met at the end of October to draw up a draft resolution, which will be debated at the World Health Assembly in May next year.
It will meet to promote access to affordable and safe medical productions through collaboration among member states and place tighter controls on SSFFC products and activities.
One of its main objectives, the report states, is to "strengthen national and regional capacities in order to ensure the integrity of the supply chain".
The draft resolution also states that WHO will intensify its measures to ensure "reliable procurement and supply systems" through information sharing and creating awareness. It will also provide technical assistance to countries, ensure national policy development and support product development.
It comes after the organisation reported its estimation that up to one per cent of medicines that are available in the developed world are likely to be counterfeited. However, this rises to ten per cent globally.
SecuringPharma.com recently collated the most recent news from around the world relating to counterfeited pharmaceuticals, which highlights the need for greater controls on the supply chain. It cited an article on petosevic.com, which states that around 2.5 million packages of substandard, counterfeit and unregistered medicines were sold in the Ukraine
Work is being done to stop counterfeiting. African website Business Daily reported that the East African Community is calling for common laws to check counterfeit drugs in the region, while in larger economic countries new technologies are helping to control the issue.
John Lewis, market development manager at Cognex Corporation, wrote an article for Vision-Systems.com about taking a new approach to track and trace. He noted that greater regulations on healthcare products have led to many pharmaceutical manufacturers implementing serialised packaging so that they can be traced throughout the supply chain. However, with many costs involved, he said that firms are investing in networked smart camera vision systems over PC-based inspection systems.
"An increasing number of European countries are, or will be, adopting sophisticated tracking and ePedigree infrastructures throughout their supply chains," he wrote. Turkey and France
Mr Lewis explained that conforming to the regulations - including in countries where they have not yet been imposed - ensures improved patient safety, integrity of products and a more secure supply chain.
He added that tracking has added benefits as well, namely achieving greater transparency and being able to isolate quality control problems. It also "reduces the potential for bad publicity, liability, and recalls," he claimed.
Axway is one company working to improve track and trace technology.
"Modern supply chains can be incredibly complex and organisations need complete transparency so that patients aren't put at risk," commented Bruno Cambounet, vice-president of sales and operations in healthcare EMEA at Axway.
Meanwhile, Avantor is providing an alternative way to target the fake drug trade. It is to begin using tamper-evident seals on the outer packaging of its pharma raw material by the end of the year.
Paul Smaltz, executive vice-president in pharmaceuticals and the Americas
The pharma supply chain industry can, therefore, expect some major changes and new regulations imposed concerning the issue during 2012.
To find out more about LogiPharma 2012, please visit www.logipharmaeurope.com
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