On 11 April, the AEMPS presented its document Counterfeit medicines strategy 2016-2019. It introduces Directive 2011/62/EU, the EU code to prevent the entry of falsified medicines into the legal supply chain, and provides information on all the actions being developed by the AEMPS at international level, with a special focus on the fight against the sale of fraudulent medicines online.
The document also provides information on the objectives and actions planned by the agency for the period 2016-2019, for which it relies on the collaboration of the State security forces, the Ministry of Justice, the Tax Agency and all types of organisations, companies and professionals in the health sector. It also plans a series of activity indicators - training activities, reporting of suspicious medicines, publication of investigated websites, reporting of medicine thefts and information campaigns for citizens -, provides information on how all these strategies will be monitored and, finally, offers a bibliography to keep up to date on these issues.
The publication of this new document coincided with the report on the period 2012-2015, in which more than 1,100 websites for human and veterinary medicines were investigated, and more than 340 cease-and-desist procedures were initiated. Some 400 inspections were also carried out to verify good distribution practices.