Annual Report 2006 - Boehringer Ingelheim

Counterfeits – a real threat
for patients
According to World Health Organization (WHO) figures,
about 10 % of all pharmaceuticals are counterfeit, are fakes
or substandard drugs. People in developing countries are
regularly confronted with this problem, also developed
countries too are increasingly affected by this kind of crimi-
nal activity. The main sources for counterfeit drugs are in
Asia and Latin America.
Boehringer Ingelheim products were also subject to this
criminal activity. Since 2001, when the Corporate reporting
system was installed, over 100 cases had been reported from
inside or outside the Corporation.
There are several reasons for the rise of counterfeit
medications: weak regulatory oversight, missing legal
framework for prosecution and penalisation, untrained
customs and a supply chain which is not sufficiently
Two-dimensional barcodes are small and can store much
more information than older one-dimensional barcodes.
They are therefore useful for pharma packages. To give
the maximum protection for the patient they should be
combined with tamper-resistant closures.
our customer orientation
controlled by inspections and not well protected against
penetration of faked products. New distribution channels
like the internet are not yet sufficiently controlled either.
“One company alone cannot solve the problem,” says
Dr Thomas Zimmer, Head of Corporate Safety, Quality
& Environmental Protection. Dr Zimmer represents
Boehringer Ingelheim in the European Federation of
Pharmaceutical Industries Associations (EFPIA) as the
chairman of the anticounterfeiting ad hoc group and
as a member of the WHO taskforce IMPACT.
The strategy for combating counterfeits in the developed
world involves a couple of different approaches: a tamper-
resistant package, which is combined with a two-dimen-
sional randomised barcode specific to one individual pack-
age, and a database to support the authentication process of
products as close to the customer as possible, ideally in
pharmacies. In the USA, other techniques, such as radio
frequency identification (RFID) labels are currently being
discussed as too are so-called “pedigrees” which document
each stop a product has made in the supply chain. To
specifically address the Latin American market Boehringer
Ingelheim founded an internal taskforce intended to
collaborate with other companies and local agencies to
contribute to respective solutions.
“But the solution is not only a technical one,” Dr Zimmer
says. “There is in general an over-reliance on technology.
Communication with the public is needed.”
It is a fight which requires patience, persistence and sustained
effort. “This battle can be won, but you can only
win it step by step,” underlines Dr Zimmer.
Investments / Counterfeits
9