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| WHO to revive talks on fake drugs |
| Joe C Mathew / New Delhi Sep 04, 2009, 00:54 IST |
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The matter was taken out of WHO’s annual meet agenda early this year after protests
Months after the member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) failed to arrive at a consensus over the introduction of a new definition for “counterfeit medicines”, the multilateral agency has once again revived talks on the counterfeit issue.
The matter had to be taken out of WHO’s annual meet — the World Health Assembly (WHA) — agenda early this year due to protests from countries like India, which felt the proposed definition would harm seamless movement of genuine medicines between developing and least developed nations.
The meeting of the WHO’s South-East Asia region, beginning in Nepal on September 7, is to revive the talks on counterfeit definition. The meeting is expected to hear various lobby groups on the possible changes that can be made to the current definition.
The main point of contention is known to be the way ‘substandard medicine’ will be described.
“A medicine which does not meet the quality standards is easy to be classified as a substandard medicine. But how do you classify a medicine that meets the quality standards but has been given marketing approval based on information that was deliberately false? This is the issue that needs to be tackled,” said an official.
Representatives of the domestic drug industry said they were not aware of the development. The issue of counterfeit medicines was on the agenda of the 62nd WHA in May 2009, but was deferred till the next year’s meet due to lack of consensus.
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