The Implications of Implementing the Directive on Falsified Medicines

The trade in illegal pharmaceuticals is a global problem for public health. The transgressions of the rules that govern the distribution and marketing of medicinal products comes in many different forms, including substandard medicines, falsified drugs, counterfeits, ineffective medicines, falsely-labelled medicines and unregistered medicines. All of which breach different provisions of the pharmaceutical legislation and could be appropriately qualified as illegal. In order to prevent the presence in the market of illegal products is necessary a global approach to define the scope of the problem and the measures to be put in place. It corresponds to the administrative, civil and criminal law to define the different problems and establish the corresponding penalties. Governments on their part should…