Sales of counterfeit medicine at €86m

Dublin: Counterfeit medicine sales in Ireland have soared to €86 million a year, with the bulk of this activity taking place online.

The European-wide black market for counterfeit medicines is estimated to be worth €10.5 billion, according to a report entitled ‘Cracking Counterfeit Europe’ commissioned by Pfizer.

This report comes just weeks after European Commission VP Gunter Verheugen announced that 34 million fake tablets had been seized on European borders in two months. The number of counterfeit medicines uncovered at EU borders rose from 560,598 articles in 2005 to 4,081,056 in 2007; a seven- fold increase in two years.