Recent developments
The Turkish Parliament recently ratified the Council of Europe Convention on the counterfeiting of medical products and similar crimes involving threats to public health (the “MEDICRIME Convention“) through Law No. 6964 Approving the Ratification of the MEDICRIME Convention, which was published in the Official Gazette and entered into force on April 2, 2017.
What the Convention Says
The Convention was signed on October 28, 2011 in Moscow as the first international treaty against counterfeit medical products and similar crimes involving threats to public health. Although Turkey signed the MEDICRIME Convention on June 29, 2012, it took more than four years for Turkey to ratify this convention.
The MEDICRIME Convention aims to protect the rights of individuals who suffer from the offenses determined under it, and promote national and international co-operation among the contracting states. In this context, the MEDICRIME Convention criminalizes the following acts:
- manufacturing of counterfeit medical products,
- supplying, offering to supply and trafficking of counterfeit medical products,
- falsification of documents, and
- unauthorized manufacturing or supplying of medicinal products and the marketing of medical devices that do not comply with conformity requirements.
Conclusion
The MEDICRIME Convention imposes on the contracting states the duty to cooperate with and implement the provisions of the MEDICRIME Convention. Turkey must adopt new laws or amend its existing laws to fulfill its duty to implement the MEDICRIME Convention. Pharmaceutical companies, therefore, should closely follow the developments and legislative changes regarding the prevention of the crimes relating to medical products under the MEDICRIME Convention.
