The World Health Organisation (WHO) made a number of recommendations at an international meeting last week about cooperation against counterfeits, but Philip Stevens points out that the manufacture and distribution of those killer counterfeit drugs are carried out with the complicity of corrupt or weak governments. This week WHO said that fakes account for about 10% of world trade in medicines, overwhelmingly in poor countries, and are worth some US$35 billion a year.

"People don't die from carrying a fake handbag or wearing a fake T- shirt. They can die from taking a counterfeit medicine. International police action against the factories and distribution networks should be as uncompromising as that applied to the pursuit of narcotic smuggling," said Howard Zucker, WHO Asst. DG for Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals, in a press release before an international conference on fake medicines. According to him trade in counterfeits is extremely lucrative, thus making it more attractive to criminal networks. According to WHO, a report released by the Centre for Medicines in the Public Interest, in the United States, projects counterfeit drug sales to reach US$ 75 billion in 2010, a 92 % increase from 2005.