This results from a survey conducted by Icm - reports PharmaTimes - on behalf of the communication company specializing in patient safety Aegate. According to the research, 5% of consumers in five European countries surveyed suspect that they have bought a fake prescription drug, while 1% are convinced of it. And by making the projections, it has been calculated that 12.8 million Europeans may have had to deal with these products. But the inhabitants of the Old Continent appear to be well informed on the problem of counterfeiting medicines: 61% knows that medicines can be counterfeited. As a result, 79% of respondents put medicines at the top of the list of most easily falsified products, followed by designer clothes and toys. According to European consumers, the fault of this illegal market lies in 45% of the cases of the companies that produce medicines. For the 31% the responsibility lies with the wholesalers and for the 30% with the pharmacists. Furthermore, the 85% would feel more protected from this phenomenon if the drug packages contained safety systems with which the pharmacist could verify their origin before purchasing. Finally, 90% of the interviewees assures that they would never buy medicines on the internet, even if pharmacies had a system to control them.
Pharmacist33 – 25 November 2009 – Year 5, Number 202
