Illustrative image (Photo: https://www.securingindustry.com/) Jakarta (VNA) – EU Ambassador to ASEAN Igor Driesmans said the EU has launched a new social media campaign entitled “Your Health Is Priceless” which aims to raise awareness of the harms that counterfeit pharmaceutical and healthcare products can cause falsified medicines in Southeast Asia.
The campaign, part of the EU-funded project Intellectual Property Key South-East Asia (IP Key SEA), constitutes a call for the public to share their experiences with counterfeit medicines on social media.
The IP Key SEA is a four-year 7 million EUR (8 million USD) programme implemented by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).
The programme’s main objective is to support intellectual properties (IP) right protection and enforcement across Southeast Asia, with a view to creating the appropriate legal and economic environment conducive to trade and investment in the region.
According to a study recently released by EUIPO and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 90 percent of counterfeit medicines can be harmful to a patient’s health, because they do not comply with intellectual property law.
They can either be medical drugs like antibiotics, painkillers, and medicines for diabetes, central nervous system, heart disease, cancer, malaria, and HIV/AIDS, or lifestyle drugs and medicines for an esthetical purpose, ranging from beauty injections to skincare.
However, some of these counterfeit products are classified as food supplements or cosmetics in some countries.
According to Tiago Guerreiro, IP Key SEA Project Leader, fake medicines may contain both placebo and dangerous substances. The objective of counterfeiters is to make as high a profit as possible from the sale of counterfeit medicines, using cheap substances and materials that could be readily available, but are not intended for human consumption./.
VNA
