Doctors worldwide call for crackdown on fake drugs

A team of doctors and nurses from the World Federation of Public Health Associations, International Pharmaceutical Federation and the International Council of Nurses are calling for a strict crackdown on counterfeit drugs. The plea comes after several deadly incidents involving fake medications in the U.S., Canada and Pakistan.

The group, led by Amir Attaran from the University of Ottawa in Canada, released a statement earlier this week calling upon the WHO to stiffen penalties on those trafficking in fake drugs. The statement invokes the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) as a possible model for stricter regulations.

"We argue that tackling the challenges of poor quality, unsafe medicines requires a comprehensive global strategy on which all stakeholders agree," say the authors.

Contributing author Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine added:

"We hope that this will form the basis for getting some consensus on a definition of counterfeit drugs, which would then be transferable into a legal instrument."