INTERPOL - World Model United Nations

Police in Jakarta burned seized counterfeit drugs in 2007.
Indonesia was participating in an international eort to
combat counterfeit medical products in Southeast Asia.
(Ahmad Zamroni for AFP/Getty Images)
pedigree system, 101 which would record the path of
ownership and location of a drug shipment. Each purchaser
along the supply chain would add information about the
drug and verify its authenticity. Diculties in this solution
remain in enforcement, as there is no appropriate or
apparent body—nor the necessary resources—to enforce
the recording of ownership at every level. Nevertheless,
such an idea warrants further exploration, at the very
least on a local level. Another idea is the use of sensors,
inert substances added to a liquid or pill to verify its
authenticity—condential information known only to
ocials in the pharmaceutical industry. is solution,
however, may have limited impact in nations that cannot
aord the pharmaceuticals themselves, to speak nothing
of the advanced technology necessary to protect the
pharmaceuticals’ authenticity. If pharmaceutical companies
agreed or were required to take up the costs of adding
sensors, however, developing countries could gain greater
protections to their drug industry, comparable to those
in place in developed nations. Proposals are also being
borrowed from the retail industry: radiofrequency
identication would involve tagging drugs in the same way
as clothing is tagged. 102
PAST INTERPOL/UN ACTIONS
In its 1999 Guidelines for the Development of Measures
to Combat Counterfeit Drugs, the WHO provided an
overview of the problem and discussed specic measures
at the local, national, and international levels to combat
counterfeit drugs. In this document, the WHO proposed
a series of broader national strategies as well as more
specic measures. e major recommendations are to
know one’s drug suppliers and not to purchase from
suppliers unknown in the eld. Also, pharmacists should
be vigilant for any telltale signs in drug packaging, such as
any slight divergences from the norm. 103
In 2006, the WHO helped create the International
Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce, or
IMPACT, with the aim of involving several stakeholders
in collaborative eorts to prevent people from buying
and taking counterfeit pharmaceuticals and to prevent
the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit
medicines. IMAPCT focuses on legislative and
regulatory infrastructure, enforcement, technology, and
communication. 104
IMPACT recently led Pangea III, an operation coordinated
by INTERPOL, the World Customs Organization (WCO),
the Permanent Forum of International Pharmaceutical
Crime (PFIPC), and the Heads of Medicines Agencies
Working Group of Enforcement Ocers (HMA WGEO).
Carried out in October 2010, the operation involved
police, customs, and national medicine regulators with
support from Internet Service Providers (ISPs), the
electronic payment system, and the delivery service.
INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble stated
about the operation:
“rough a multi-sector operation involving
law enforcement and health, INTERPOL’s key
objective in Operation Pangea III was to alert
and protect members of the public by assisting
our 188 member countries shut down illegal
pharmaceutical websites, chase money ows back
to the sources behind these illicit pharmaceutical
products which represent such a threat to the
health of the public…While this international
operation, the third of its kind, shows that
criminals attempting to use the Internet as an
anonymous safe haven are not safe anymore,
we hope that that by raising public awareness
about the dangers of illegal Internet pharmacies,
consumers will exercise greater care when
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