Protecting the health of patients: our responsibilities as a pharmaceutical company

Sanofi-aventis is committed to protecting patients' health, answering public healthcare needs and acting responsibly in all aspects of its business.

A major element of our commitment is ensuring the quality of our products. In addition to exacting manufacturing standards, sanofi-aventis also combats counterfeit imitation of its medicines.

Counterfeit medicines have a direct impact on the health of patients and public healthcare. For this reason, this issue demands a forceful response.

Since 1998, counterfeit medicines have increased by 50 %, and now constitute 6% - 10% of the global market, reaching as much as 70 % in some countries. Counterfeit medicines may contain insufficient or no active ingredients, or carry incorrect patient information. As a result, they do not have the required effect, or worse, they can put the patient's health or life in danger. Sometimes, the active ingredients are different to those indicated on the package. These fake medicines may also contain impurities in addition to dangerous, if not deadly, products. The packaging can be faked, which does not make the task of detection any easier for manufacturers, health authorities, or distributors for example, or for the medicine supply chain in general.

Faced with counterfeits, our response is a global one, whatever the medicine or the country concerned.

Sanofi-aventis works with public healthcare agencies, such as the Agence Française de Sécurité Sanitaire des Produits de Santé (AFSSAPS - French Agency for the Safety of Medicines), the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States, the World Health Organization (WHO), etc. We work in close collaboration with these agencies, as well as with ministries, customs, police, pharmacists, wholesalers and other pharmaceutical companies to investigate suspected counterfeiters.

Sanofi-aventis rigorously investigates all cases of counterfeiting of its medicines. In the fight against counterfeiting, sanofi-aventis is equipped with the means to act responsibly:

• modification programs for the packaging of our products to make the manufacturing of counterfeits more difficult and to facilitate detection,
• a taskforce which includes representatives of all Group departments concerned (Operations, Legal, Regulatory, Manufacturing, Quality and Security),
• correspondents in every country, who collect information to help detect suspect medicines and alert the health authorities when cases are confirmed,
• security investigations and legal actions.

The fight against counterfeiting demands severe penalties, better patient information and close cooperation between the different authorities both nationally and internationally. It also demands an active role from all those concerned in the medicines supply chain upstream of the manufacturers.