Leadership Rotation For Fight The Fakes Campaign

A new industry group today took the reins of the Fight the Fakes campaign, a growing coalition against fake medicines, the first rotation in leadership since its launch in late 2013.

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers (IFPW) took over the secretariat of Fight the Fakes, which in little over 3 years has grown to include over 30 organisations, including healthcare professionals, academia, NGOs, the generic and research-based pharmaceutical industry, healthcare distributors, and consumer protection organisations, according to a release.

As secretariat, IFPW will “continue to coordinate and amplify campaign partners’ activities in combatting fake medicines, and leverage their supply chain expertise and membership base to strengthen the campaign’s network,” the release said.

The initiative has been led since its inception by the Geneva-based International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA).

Based on the Fight the Fakes website, it appears the campaign steers clear of debates at the international policy level about how to define a fake medicine. Last week, the World Health Organization Executive Board approved a change to reference such medicines as “falsified and substandard.” It was explained that “counterfeit” is a legal trade term specifically referring to products with fake labels, and does not refer to the quality of the product inside.