INTERPOL - World Model United Nations

drugs to be one of its main priorities. 112 WHO believes that
stringent regulatory control of medicines and enforcement
by national medicines regulatory authorities can contribute
signicantly to prevention and detection of counterfeit
medicines. It thus provides direct country and regional
support for strengthening medicine regulation. e agency
also conducts workshops emphasizing the magnitude of
the risk and the possible consequences drug counterfeiting
holds for health systems. Additionally, WHO has conducted
studies and provided funding to various countries to
combat the problem.
e Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI) is a non-prot
corporation formed by several major drug companies to
collate their fake drug information to cooperate in ghting
counterfeiting. Based in Vienna, Virginia in the United
States, the PSI holds the only known comprehensive and
updated source of fake drug information. e PSI Web
site (www.psi-inc.org) states: “On a daily basis, many
individuals unknowingly risk death or serious injury to
their health by taking counterfeit pharmaceuticals.” 113 But
its databank, which health workers see as holding key
information to prevent patients from taking life-threatening
fakes, is not accessible to WHO, health authorities,
or the public. Access is restricted even between its
member companies, which include the 15 largest drug
manufacturers. Justication for such restriction involves
protecting members which may be seen to cause the
counterfeit drug crisis, either by directly manufacturing a
counterfeit product by accident or explicitly or by having
lax standards that allow mis-packaged or mis-produced
items to escape undetected and undeterred. INTERPOL
should bring in the expertise of PSI when considering
creating a database in order to avoid replicating costly
eorts to compile information. Agreements with PSI to
share information with the public that does not jeopardize
any company’s privacy or security warrants deliberation and
discussion on an international level.
e Permanent Forum on International Pharmaceutical
Crime (PFIPC) is an international enforcement forum with
the goal of protecting public health and safety through
the exchange of information and ideas to foster mutual
cooperation. 114 e members of PFIPC are professionals
from 15 member countries worldwide whose goal is to
enhance the protection of the public health by combating
pharmaceutical crime. e member countries come from
four continents and include South Africa, Singapore,
Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Israel,
Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom,
Number of drug busts in recent years, by region of the world. (http://neurobonkers.com/?tag=counterfeit-drugs)
Harvard WorldMUN 2012 INTERPOL 25