OREANDA-NEWS. December 04, 2008. The Expert Council, of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, on Developing Competition on Social Sphere and Health Service met to discuss "the Measures to Counteract Unfair Competition in Medicines Trading", reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The aim of the meeting was to elaborate joint actions of FAS Russia and the Federal Service for Supervision of Public Health and Social Development (Roszdravnadzor) to suppress trading with counterfeit drugs.

In her speech, Valentina Kosenko, the Head of the State Control Department of Roszdravnadzor, stated that medicines counterfeiting was a serious problem. In 2007 counterfeit drugs were 0.07 % of all series in circulation. Analysis of drugs counterfeiting in 2008 showed that most counterfeit drugs were fake western medicines - 55%; in 2008 fake Russian medicines were 45 %.

Nikolai Kartashev, the Head of the FAS Russia's Department of Advertising Control and Unfair Competition, informed the Council on the procedures of applying the sanctions under Article 14 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" (prohibiting unfair competition) to the companies involved in trading counterfeit medicines; and the measures and fines applied to the violators of the antimonopoly legislation.

Summing up the meeting, the Council made a decision that in the near future Roszdravnadzor and FAS Russia would develop the procedures for exchange and registration of information in discovering the facts of trading counterfeit drugs in order to facilitate enforcement of Article 14 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition".