More than twenty internationally recognized experts from the pharmaceutical industry, government and non-governmental organizations will convene from around the world at the first Global Forum on Pharmaceutical AntiCounterfeiting, being held from September 22-25, 2002 in Geneva. Expected attendees and speakers include representatives from the World Health Organization, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations, US Food & Drug Administration, GlaxoSmithKline, Medecins Sans Frontieres, the Russian Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and the Pharmaceutical Security Institute.

Pharmaceutical counterfeiting is a global menace which is believed to have killed thousands already. With increasing global trade and the internet, the involvement of organized criminal groups and the massive delivery of low cost medicines to developing countries, it is becoming increasingly widespread and is a source of major concern to healthcare professionals, the industry and the public at large. The Global Forum will help to address the problem by bringing together for the first time many of the key organizations within the pharmaceutical community -- governmental, legal and commercial -- to collaborate on the discussion and implementation of anticounterfeiting solutions on an international basis.

In order to stimulate discussion and the development of joint actions, the Forum's program is divided into four specific areas.

1) Understanding the Problem -- providing an overview of the effects and consequences of pharmaceutical counterfeiting on health programs, companies and, critically, the public, this session will feature presentations by the World Health Organization, the Russian Association of International Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and the writer/journalist Robert Cockburn, who will relay his 20 years' experience in investigating the sources and methods of criminal counterfeiters.

2) Development of Partnerships amongst pharmaceutical manufacturers, healthcare delivery agencies, law enforcers and governments -- this session will examine how cooperation between these different groups can work.

3) Building the Security Infrastructure will cover the regulatory and policy initiatives that will shape the war against counterfeiting and which can both drive forward and reinforce anticounterfeiting systems and infrastructures.

4) Building Security into the Product -- the final session will focus on the use of anticounterfeiting strategies and technologies by the pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors themselves to protect the supply chain of medicines from the manufacturers to the market.

The Global Forum will be supported by two special sessions. One, a hands-on executive briefing on Practical AntiCounterfeiting Solutions, will demonstrate to pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors proven strategies and technologies to defeat counterfeiting. The other (by invitation only) on Law Enforcement will provide regulators, customs officials, police and others involved in enforcement a confidential platform for devising means of exchanging intelligence, creating cross-border channels of communication and developing joint initiatives for action.

A full program on the Global Forum on Pharmaceutical AntiCounterfeiting can be obtained from Reconnaissance or from the website by clicking here.