The World Health Professions Alliance (WHPA) is an organization that represents more than 26 million health care professionals in more than 130 countries. WHPA works to improve the quality of patient care and facilitates collaboration among the health professions and major stakeholders.

One of the organizations represented by WHPA is the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP). Healthcare professionals from this organization share a common goal that involves safeguarding the well-being of patients across the world by protecting them from poor quality, substandard and counterfeit medical products.

The FIP recently collaborated with the Indian Pharmaceutical Association and two other medical associations in India to release a comprehensive handbook for healthcare professionals, titled  “All You Need to Know About Spurious Medicines.” The following are some key findings from the report:

• Spurious, substandard, falsely labelled, falsified, counterfeit (SSFFC) medicines are always illegal and can result in treatment failure or even death. Eliminating them is a considerable public health challenge.
• Within the South East Asia region, the country with the highest number of media reports about counterfeit drugs is India, followed by Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Thailand.
• The problem is more pronounced in countries where medicine regulation is ineffective, smuggling of medicines is rampant, clandestine manufacturing exists, sanctions are absent or very weak, and there is high corruption.
• It is hard to determine what type of medicines are more likely to be spurious. It is therefore important for every healthcare professional to pay attention to every product they dispense/prescribe/ use in their practice.
• Healthcare professionals should purchase drugs from genuine and reputable sources, and should always be on their guard when it comes to counterfeit drugs.

The FIP has been involved for many years in the fight against spurious medicines to protect patients’ health. In addition to the report on spurious medicines, another recent FIP initiative is an online resource center for combating counterfeit drugs. The Website highlights important information for patients, and offers resources, including publications and international guidelines/tools, that can be useful in policy development and advocacy against substandard and counterfeit drugs.

At CSIP, we are encouraged by the international efforts of WHPA, FIP, and the Indian Pharmaceutical Association to educate consumers and to combat rogue online pharmacies globally. In the U.S., we urge consumers to check all online pharmacy sites before they buy using our LegitScript Pharmacy Verification Tool, and educate themselves about the dangers of illegitimate online pharmaceuticals and pharmacies.

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The Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies (CSIP) and our 13 member companies have the shared goal of helping address the growing problem of consumer access to illegitimate pharmaceutical products on the Internet. Continue to read this blog for updates on CSIP’s education, enforcement and information-sharing efforts.