The day after the Fondation Chirac conference on the traffic of false medicines in Brussels, on Tuesday, December 7, 2010, the Council of Europe adopted the Medicrime Convention. This is the first-ever international legal instrument that criminalizes the falsification as well as the production and the distribution of medical products placed on the market without authorization or that violate safety norms.
The day after the Fondation Chirac conference on the traffic of false medicines in Brussels, on Tuesday, December 7, 2010, the Council of Europe adopted the Medicrime Convention.
This is the first-ever international legal instrument that criminalizes the falsification as well as the production and the distribution of medical products placed on the market without authorization or that violate safety norms.
Since October 2009, the Fondation Chirac has been mobilizing international leaders in the fight against fake medicines. The Fondation is particularly invested in the creation of a law enforcement instrument to regulate the distribution of medicines and to reinforce the rights of the sick for access to quality controlled medicines. In this sense the Medicrime Convention is an essential step that the Fondation is particularly pleased with.
Destined to protect public health, the Medicrime Convention is the first international instrument requiring states party to take the necessary legislative and other measures to punish under criminal law:
– the manufacturing of counterfeit medical products,
– the supplying or the offering to supply, as well as the trafficking of counterfeit medical products,
– the making of false documents,
– the manufacturing, offering to supply or placing of the market of medicinal products without authorization or medical devices without being in compliance with the conformity requirements.
The Medicrime Convention has been opened for signature by member States on October 26, 2011. It is equally opened for signature by States that are not members of the Council of Europe.
Albania, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Guinea, Hungary, Island, Israel, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Marocco, Moldova, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine.