Counterfeiting of medicine and medical products has increased worldwide in recent years, endangering public health, affecting patients and sapping their confidence in the legal marketplace.

Even more profitable than drug trafficking, this new form of crime has an undeniable advantage for criminals: they go largely unpunished or receive only mild sanctions. Even when states take strict measures to regulate the production and distribution of medical products and devices, these measures often prove insufficient, especially when criminal find gaps in legislation, or are able to exploit international networks. This makes fake medicine and medical products a danger to health and to human rights.

The Council of Europe’s response is the MEDICRIME Convention which: a) provides for specific and effective criminal sanctions for those who carry out the falsification of medical products and other similar crimes; b) protects the rights of victims; and c) promotes national and international co-operation.

The MEDICRIME Convention is the only international legally binding instrument in the criminal law field to counter the falsification of medical products and other similar crimes involving threats to public health. It is the only international instrument which deals with this issue from a criminal-law perspective.

The Council of Europe supports its member states and other Parties in implementing the monitoring recommendations through technical cooperation and assistance.

Work focuses on developing legal texts to reinforce existing laws and on producing tools and other material to help implement binding legal principles. The Council of Europe maintains partnerships with other intergovernmental organisations working on the issue, such as inter alia UNODC, INTERPOL, WCO, WHO, EU and with civil society.

Civil society can participate as observers within the MEDICRIME Committee.