Falsified Medicines are false drugs that are used as authentic drugs. The European Union laws that are mandatory on processing, distribution and permitting of medicines which are based on the Directive for false medication. The EU directive only allows drugstores and other authorized stores to sell drugs. One of the new EU’s policies needs manufacturers to have safe and secure standards on all medicines and donate funds to the development of a computerized system that examines the legitimacy of a product before it is sold.
Falsified drugs are those that have minimal to no active elements, have been interfered and lack essential elements. Some false medicines also contain stolen labels. Online sites are significant traders for falsified drugs. Authorities are regularly apprehending retailers dealing with counterfeit medication to reduce the number of occurrences of such medicines. Most of these false medicines are dangerous to consumers since they may have side effects — their sale results to reduced market of certain products that are highly used by users all over.
What Exactly is the EU Directive?
The falsified medicines directive is a law established by the European Union Parliament. The laws’ primary role is to ensure safe processing and delivery of drugs all over Europe. The legislature also protects consumers and inhibits the spread of fake drugs into the supply chain. According to the Directive, all drugs in the market will contain two security features; these features are a unique identifier (UI) and an anti-tamper device (ATD). Drugstores and licensed drug vendors will have to legalize their medicines, meaning they have to scan the UI and check the presence of the ATD before selling drugs. The process must be done before providing a patient with the drug. In cases where a variety of medicines or a large number of drugs are to be sold, the drug store should ensure that the whole medicine packet has the required safety concerns.
Apart from the mentioned law of using the two security features, the Directive also has some other concerns.
- To come up with strong regulations on the control of raw materials required for the manufacture of drugs, to examine the manufacturers of active pills and the ingredients present in medicines.
- To monitor the abundant supply of medicines and provide regulations to businesses carrying out brokering of drugs.
- To develop a similar, EU logo to recognize permitted online drugstores easily, and to create a system that notifies the EU of sites supplying medicines to the public through online platforms.
The directives on false medicines were adopted by the EU a few years ago and have been implemented accordingly. Fake drugs in developed countries majorly constitute of lifestyle medication while in 3rd world countries false drugs are usually those used to diagnose life-threatening diseases.