23/01/2019 Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development today launched a new publication on the MEDICRIME Convention (Council of Europe Convention on the counterfeiting of medical products and similar crimes involving threats to public health).
The presentation of the booklet was followed by an exchange of view with Susanne Keitel, Director of the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare and Johannes Kleijssen, Director of the Information Society and Action against Crime Directorate. Mr Kleijssen stressed that 10% of medicines sold globally and 50% of medicines sold online were falsified.
Falsified medical products are a danger to public health, they can cause irreparable harm to millions of unsuspecting consumers. The MEDICRIME Convention is the first international legally binding instrument to address this issue. The booklet aims to present the key issues about the Convention through 10 questions and answers that provide easily-understandable information.
Stefan Schennach, the Committee Chairperson called on all members to bring back this issue to their parliament, in order to increase the number of ratifications.