Lu Rahman asks Scott McDougall, co-founder of The Independent Pharmacy, about the threat that counterfeit medicines pose within the supply chain.
Counterfeit medicine
LR: How big an issue is counterfeiting for the pharmaceutical sector in terms of danger to the public and lost revenue to business?
SM: In terms of revenue, the impact of counterfeiting is enormous. Collectively, pharmaceutical businesses lose billions of pounds to counterfeit medication every year.
But the billions in lost revenue pales in comparison with the lives lost as a result of fake medicine. While Western countries are not immune to this risk, most deaths occur in countries with poor quality control, scant regulatory inspections, and a high demand for medicines (such as anti-malarial drugs in Africa).
LR: Where do you see most of the fake products coming from and what can the industry do about it?
SM: Most fake products are produced in countries like (but not exclusively) India and China. A combination of poor regulations, inadequate laboratory facilities, and fewer industry inspectors makes these countries hotbeds for the production of counterfeit medication.
It is up to the industry as a whole to place greater pressure on those country’s regulatory bodies to conduct more stringent checks on manufacturers. Similarly, the supply chains that operate between these countries and Europe need to face greater scrutiny by industry bodies.
LR: How has the False Medicines Directive helped?
SM: While the FMD has huge potential for the industry, very few counterfeit medicines enter the supply chain of registered pharmacies. In reality, the biggest purchasers of fake products are by oblivious consumers from illicit online pharmacies that exist outside the established supply chain.
However, Brexit has somewhat hampered the impact of the FMD. If the UK has a no-deal exit from the EU, we would lose access to European Medicines Verification System (EMVS), a crucial database used to inform the FMD.
LR: How is technology helping address the problems of fake medicines and drugs and how have you made use of it?
SM: There is an array of technological application helping the industry in the fight against fake drugs: packaging identification features such as holograms, guilloches, and colour-changing inks, for instance.
At The Independent Pharmacy, we use these unique ID features (in line with other precautions) for spot checks and to ensure our supply chain remains safe and uncompromised.
Other techniques used throughout the supply chain include spectrometers to detect the chemical composition of drugs and radio-frequency identification (RFID) to create digital records of when a product was created, like a barcode but far more secure.
Blockchain also plays an important role. As a product moves through the supply chain, block technology gives each drug a timestamp at each stage. This provides accountability at every stage of the supply chain.