PANORAMA

Brussels  -  The EU pharmacy body PGEU has become victim of illegal website operators selling medicines online: "The Canadian Neighbor Pharmacy", a site registered in Russia, was claiming that PGEU, among four certifying bodies from North America, supported the website and that “all drugs sold […] are considered to be approved by PGEU”.

By clicking on the PGEU logo at the bottom of the page, any potential customer would be redirected to a certificate “issued” by PGEU, with a fake signature of PGEU-President Filip Babylon. Meanwhile the website has been removed.

With regard to plans of the ENVI committee at the European Parliament, PGEU Secretary General John Chave said: “Of course it is absolutely important that patients who wish to buy medicines legally on the internet are given safe options to do so. However our experience shows that we run the risk of creating a false sense of security if counterfeiting certification is so easy. We should not put patients in the position of having to discriminate between fake and real certification. We need to explore technological options which put certification beyond the counterfeiters.”

PHARMA ADHOC, Fri, May 21, 2010 04:42pm CET