Pharma Secure Chain 2008 Speaker Profiles:

Jim Thomson
CEO
The European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines (EAASM)

The EAASM was founded in 2007 with the clear objective of fighting for increased patient safety measures to protect all Europeans against counterfeit and substandard medicines.

Combating counterfeit medicines requires the coordinated effort of all the various public and private stakeholders involved in addressing the different aspects of the problem. The EAASM aims to represent and take action with, and on behalf of, these stakeholders.

The EAASM has published two in-depth research reports examining the global problem of counterfeit medicines. The most recent, The Counterfeiting Superhighway, revealed that a frightening 62% of medicines purchased online are fake or substandard. These include medicines indicated to treat serious conditions such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, neurological disorders and mental health conditions. Among a number of recommendations, the report suggests that popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN should remove webpages that advertise counterfeit medicines from their search results. The response from the consumer press was staggering, with over 400 news items covering the report in France, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Germany, the UK and the US.

The other 104 page report, European Patient Safety and Parallel Pharmaceutical Trade – a potential public health disaster?, authored by renowned expert Dr Jonathan Harper, distils and analyses available studies, and examines the economic issues around parallel pharmaceutical trade. The report had a resounding impact and was discussed in the European Parliament, leading Günter Verheugen, Vice President of the European Commission to state: “… parallel trade brings a considerable risk for the safety of the patients…I will prioritise the issue of parallel trade with fake pharmaceuticals”.

For more information on the EAASM please visit www.eaasm.eu (available in five languages) or contact enquiries@eaasm.eu

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