日本の薬の歴史を色々と調べている。そういうときに、エコノミスト・エスプレッソで近年の流れに批判的な記事。EUの28か国で偽薬剤の売り上げを防ぐための、ヨーロッパ全体における薬剤を渡す仕組みをコントロールする仕組みが導入されたというニュース。エコノミストによれば、年間に処方する薬は180億件。そのうち0.005% が偽薬剤。それをヨーロッパ全体で管理する仕組みは製薬会社が製造しなければならないという。しばらく前の別の記事では、別の側面に注目して、中国、インド、タイなどで違法な輸入があるとのこと。あまり深入りはしないけれども、言及できるかもしれない。
Phantom fakes: European medicines
A huge legally-enforced system to prevent the sale of fake medicines goes live tomorrow in 28 European countries. It will connect all pharmacies, hospitals, drugmakers and their distributors to an online hub that holds unique verification codes for each of the 18bn packs of prescription medicines sold in the EU each year. It is an expensive solution for a problem that barely exists. Perhaps 0.005% of medicine packs in Europe’s legal supply are fake. Pharmaceutical companies, which are paying most to set up the database, are keen, but perhaps not just for patient-safety reasons. The system will generate reams of data on sales and distribution—though to start with firms’ access to it will be limited. Glitches and false alarms on the new platform are inevitable. Some countries are still unsure about what pharmacists should do with packs they cannot verify. For now, they are told to ignore alarms and dispense the medicines to patients anyway.