The Director General of the Italian Medicines Agency, thus commented on theinvestigation into the counterfeiting of the medicine Ozopulmin which led to the arrest of 3 managers of the pharmaceutical company. "The ability of the institutions to protect public health has been confirmed".
20 JUN – "The conclusion of the investigation into the counterfeiting of the drug Ozopulmin, far from representing an alarm signal on the safety of the products marketed in Italy, is confirmation of the institutions' ability to protect public health and to effectively prosecute pharmaceutical crime". Thus the Director General of the Italian Medicines Agency, Luke Pani, commented the case of counterfeiting of the drug Ozopulmin which led to the arrest of 3 managers of the pharmaceutical company.
"The case stems from an intelligence activity launched by Aifa in June 2011 and immediately shared with the Nas. The checks, carried out in a timely manner, have just as quickly led to the withdrawal of the product, to protect consumers. This type of counterfeiting, also confirmed from laboratory analyses, it represents – continued Pani – the first case in Italy; in the European context, still in recent times, however, more worrying cases have occurred, such as the falsification of anticancer products, which have not involved the Italian system thanks to the constant monitoring carried out through the traceability system and the continuous sharing of information on suspected cases between the Administrations, both healthcare and non-healthcare, that have been interested in the problem for some time".
"The intersectoral collaboration structured for some time in the national Impact Italy Task Force, and the close cooperation between the AIFA offices that deal with counterfeiting, pharmacovigilance, authorizations, inspections - concluded the AIFA Director General - has made it possible to initiate joint actions, coordinated and effective with results that once again confirm the system's ability to protect the public health and that of every single citizen."
