{"id":1118,"date":"2011-01-21T16:33:12","date_gmt":"2011-01-21T16:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/2011\/01\/missed-working-group-meeting-on-counterfeits-is-another-fake-out.html"},"modified":"2011-01-21T16:33:12","modified_gmt":"2011-01-21T16:33:12","slug":"missed_working_group_meeting_o_1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/2011\/01\/missed_working_group_meeting_o_1.html","title":{"rendered":"Missed working group meeting on counterfeits is another fake out"},"content":{"rendered":"

<img alt=“WHO<\/span>.gif” src=“https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/nm\/spoonful\/WHO<\/span>.gif” width=“160” height=“163” align=“right” hspace = “10px”\/>The global war against counterfeit medicines took another step backwards this week.<\/p>\n

The story begins last May, when the World Health Organization (WHO<\/span>) said it would set up a working group<\/a> to take a second look at the agency\u2019s efforts to curb the number of fake drugs on the market. At the time, some people had criticized <\/a>the WHO<\/span> as being overly influenced by pharmaceutical manufacturers in its ongoing crusade against counterfeits. One particular sore point<\/a> was the International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce (IMPACT<\/span>), which counts associations representing pharmaceutical manufacturers and wholesalers amongst its members<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But despite the WHO<\/span> plan set forth last spring the working group on counterfeit, falsely-labeled and substandard medicines still has not met<\/a>. Originally scheduled to meet in December, their report is expected at the upcoming meeting of the World Health Assembly in Geneva in May.<\/p>\n

The health agency has had a rocky journey in its quest to address counterfeits. It has faced vocal criticism from India, a large manufacturer or generics, which struggled in the past<\/a> with IMPACT’s broad definition of “counterfeit” drugs.<\/p>\n

With the growing numbers of counterfeit and sub-standard medicines flooding the developing world<\/a>, the move is especially disappointing. A WHO<\/span>-study released last November<\/a> indicates that as much as 70% of the anti-malarials and tuberculosis medications do not work against these growing epidemics. With these low-risk, high-reward crimes on the rise, something needs to be done, and done soon.<\/p>\n

For more on counterfeits, read our news focus<\/a> on the subject.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWHO.gif\u201dThe global war against counterfeit medicines took another step backwards this week.  Read more<\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drugs-drugs-and-more-drugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}