Mexico Approves Reform to Fight Counterfeit Drugs Victor Mayen - The News
go to original March 13, 2013

MEXICO CITY – The Senate approved reforms to the General Health Law in a bid to curb the counterfeit medicine trade in Mexico. Senators approved the changes to article 464 of the law, with 90 votes in favor.

The amendments mean that sellers of counterfeit medicines or medical samples could face up to nine years in prison and fines around 3 million pesos, or $241,000.

Senate Health Committee President Maki Esther Ortiz Domínguez said that the idea of the reform is to regulate the distribution of medical samples and increase penalties for those who counterfeit medicinal packaging or drugs.

“Anyone who sells or offers for sale, trades, distributes or transports medicine, drugs, raw materials that are falsified, altered, contaminated or adulterated, either in stores or in any other place … will be subject to the same penalty,” Ortiz said.

In related news, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Anthony Wayne, speaking at last week’s International Forum on Combating Illegal Health Market Products in Mexico City, urged his host country to do more to stop the sale and consumption of illegal medicines. Illegal health products kill an estimated 700,000 people worldwide every year, the ambassador said.

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