THREATS OF TRADE IN COUNTERFEIT PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCTS

Abstract

Many authors point out to severe negative implications that trade in counterfeit medical products may cause to a national economy. It does not only create negative implications from the illegal exploitation of intellectual property rights under the TRIPS Agreement, but also creates serious threats to the economic growth, life, health and safety of citizens and undermines good governance, the rule of law, as well as citizens’ trust in government. The outburst of the COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning of 2020 had a strong impact upon the increment of on-line trade in goods, as well as upon on-line trade in pharmaceutical products. Different criminal networks used the COVID-19 pandemic for widening the scope and the scale of their operations in on-line trade in unauthorized or fake pharmaceuticals for medical treatment of different medical conditions including COVID-19. Having on mind the gravity of the problem of global trade in counterfeit pharmaceutical products, the authors of this paper pay due attention to the correct definition on falsified medical/pharmaceutical products; provide literature review and a brief review of actual international and multilateral regulative on intellectual property rights relevant for pharmaceuticals and the exemptions thereof; make an analyses of actual global trends and greatest traders of falsified pharmaceutical products; and finally present concluding remarks.