"Operation Vigorali": Europe-wide trafficking of counterfeit medicines solved
With the detention of eight people in Austria, the Federal Criminal Police Office, Organized Crime Division, in cooperation with the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) today led a decisive blow against an international drug counterfeiting ring. For the Federal Office for Safety in Health Care (BASG) and the assigned staff of the AGES Medical Market Surveillance, this case already began in the fall of 2012, when several Austrian pharmacists worriedly notified the AGES after they discovered the addresses of their public pharmacies as alleged, counterfeit shipping addresses on airmail envelopes of poorly packaged medicines. The post office had previously returned numerous of these understamped envelopes to the alleged senders. The illegality of these medicines was quickly established in the AGES medicines laboratory. On the one hand, a clear underdosage of the indicated active pharmaceutical ingredients was determined, and on the other hand, the intentional falsification of the packaging materials (blisters). Initial questioning of purchasers of these counterfeit medicines in Austria by AGES employees led to the website "www.apotheke-austria.com", which trades in numerous counterfeit and illegal medicines. By researching the account and telephone numbers used, a clear picture emerged of the procedures involved in this illegal trade. During this phase of the investigations, AGES cooperated closely with the officers of the Federal Criminal Police Office, who also acted as laboratory partners in the area of identification measures. The basis for the investigations is, among other things, the "Medicrime Convention", which was recently implemented in Austria with the term "drug counterfeiting" and the prison sentences provided for this in the Austrian Medicines Act.In March 2013, the case and the facts collected were handed over in full to the police. From this point on, AGES acted as an expert witness for the police and as a reporting point for other pharmacists affected. As a result, patients who had obtained ineffective medicines from the above-mentioned source came forward more and more frequently. All accessible samples relating to this case were and are continuously examined in the AGES drug laboratory. The targeted forensic measures based on the initial AGES investigations, as well as the further investigation successes of the police, finally led to this successful strike against the criminal network operating throughout Europe.
Further information:
Press release of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (01.09.2014).
Queries (technical):
Dr. Christoph Baumgärtel, Tel.: 050555/36004
E-mail: christoph.baumgaertel@ages.at
Queries (for media):
Communications Management, Tel.: 050555/25000
E-mail: presse@ages.at
