European Union has the Falsified Medicines Directive

Attaran and colleagues made no mention of a current important European Union directive: the so called Falsified Medicines Directive.1 The directive is intended to ensure that all packs of at risk drugs are verified through a central EU data repository. It also provides measures to control online sales of drugs, to secure points all along the supply chain, and to secure the quality and safety of starting materials.2 3

The authors’ proposal of a global treaty to bring the disparate strands together is worthy of closer scrutiny.