"To guarantee the supply of the illegal channels" of drugs "the assault on trucks during transport would therefore seem to no longer be the method in use, and instead one would resort to a constant activity of stealing individual pieces, carried out directly in the structures, hardly the subject of complaints; as far as sales are concerned, this would no longer involve European parallel trade, now subject to more rigorous controls, but entry points that are less controlled, such as the black market national (for high-cost products attractive on our territory, such as those for the treatment of hepatitis C) or non-EU countries, less involved in investigative verification projects”. The Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa) outlined the evolution of the phenomenon of drug theft.
"The operation carried out by the Nas Nucleus of Rome, which led to the arrest of a pharmacist of the special company Farmacap of the Municipality of Rome, accused of theft and illegal sale of medicines - AIFA recalls in a note - made it possible to highlight one of the further evolutions of the drug theft phenomenon, which the cooperation between the Carabinieri Command Ts-Nas and the Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa) had successfully addressed between 2014 and 2015, and which is still the subject of joint research and investigations between the Ccts-Nas and Aifa ".
“The activity coordinated by Italy at an international level – it is highlighted – has in fact made it possible to identify and close isales channels through which stolen drugs found an 'outlet' in Italy, also with the aid of tools accessible to all operators through which the list of drugs subject to illegal trafficking was shared in real time. It is therefore presumable that the same organizations dedicated to these traffics, after a break of more than 18 months - during which the phenomenon has recorded a significant decrease - have begun to remodel their business".
"In response to these evolutions, the cooperation tools between Aifa and Carabinieri Nas are also subject to changes and developments, which have already made it possible to support investigations triggered by signals from other countries, relating to new types of pharmaceutical crime".
The positive results of the 'Italian model' for combating pharmaceutical crime were presented by Aifa in recent days at the Interpol international conference on 'Ip Crimes' and will be explored during the international conference dedicated to the results of the European Fakeshare II project, which Aifa will host on 14 October.
Posted on: 04/10/2016 – adnkronos
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