Counterfeit Drugs: 6. Specific measures: 6.6 Empowering the judiciary

Counterfeit Drugs
(1999; 61 pages) [French] [Spanish]

Table of Contents

	Executive Summary
	1. Introduction
		1.1 Background
		1.2 DMP-DAP joint project on counterfeit drugs
		1.3 Structure of the guidelines
	2. Overview of the problem
	3. Impact on public health
	4. Factors facilitating counterfeiting
	5. Developing national strategies
		5.1 General considerations
		5.2 Plan of action
		5.3 Monitoring and evaluation
	6. Specific measures
		6.1 Strengthening political will and commitment
		6.2 Promulgating appropriate legislation
		6.3 Establishing a national drug regulatory authority
		6.4 Developing standard operating procedures and guidelines for drug inspectors
		6.5 Enforcing drug control laws
		6.6 Empowering the judiciary
		6.7 Fostering partnerships
		6.8 Sharing responsibilities
	7. Assessment of the problem at the national level
		7.1 Approaches
		7.2 Sampling procedures
		7.3 Limitations
	8. Inspection when pharmaceutical products are suspected to be counterfeit, spurious or substandard
		8.1 Broad objective
		8.2 Standard operating procedures (SOP)
		8.3 Counterfeit products
	9. Test methods
		9.1 Methods based on thin-layer chromatography
		9.2 Other simple methods
		9.3 Analytical techniques
		9.4 Visual inspection
		9.5 Successful implementation of simple tests
	10. Developing training programmes: inspection and examination of counterfeit pharmaceuticals
		10.1 General remarks
		10.2 Training programme on inspection
		10.3 Training programme on examination
		10.4 The practical issues of organizing and implementing the programme (35)
	11. Conclusion
	References
	Selected further reading
	Acknowledgements
	Glossary

6.6 Empowering the judiciary

Countries should regard the counterfeiting of drugs as a serious offence and their judiciary should be empowered to impose harsh sentences in keeping with the nature of the contravention. Many calls have been made for the imposition of very severe penalties.

Counterfeiting cases should be given priority and handled speedily in the court system, and the courts should be empowered to order the confiscation, forfeiture and destruction of any detected counterfeit drugs.