Reports of falsified and substandard products sold as COVID-19 treatments and vaccines continue to increase at a worrying pace across the globe, hindering efforts to contain the pandemic, putting lives at risk, and inciting vaccine hesitancy. The exponential use of antimicrobials and countries falling short of medicines supplies could encourage criminals to produce and sell falsified and substandard antibiotics, further contributing to antimicrobial resistance.

While Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) are once again at the heart of the illicit trade of falsified products these are also being sold on the dark web to unwary people. It is time to discuss the magnitude of this problem, what are the risks and what can be done to protect people from becoming victims a second time, from fake treatments and vaccines.

Join a Fight the Fakes event on the sidelines of the World Health Assembly to discuss how to tackle the growing burden of falsified products for COVID-19 in a time when our societies are still fighting to overcome the pandemic.

Agenda:

Moderator: Andrew Jack, Global Education Editor, Financial Times

Welcome: Oksana Pyzik, Global Engagement Lead, Lecturer, UCL School of Pharmacy and Founder of UCL Fight The Fakes.

Pernette Bourdillon Esteve, Team lead, Incidents and Substandard/Falsified Medical Products (ISF) Regulation and Safety, World Health Organization (WHO)

Dr. Catherine Duggan, CEO, International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP)

Cecilia Fant, Regional Director EMEA, The Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI)

Dr Edward Kelley, Chief Global Health Officer for ApiJect Research Foundation, Former Director of Integrated Health Services at the World Health Organisation (WHO)

Prof. Paul Newton, Professor of Tropical Medicine and Head of Medicine Quality Research Group, Centre for Tropical Medicine & Global Health

Neil J. Walsh, Chief, Cybercrime and Anti-Money Laundering Section, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

And last but not least the Academic & Youth Group of Fight the Fakes are preparing a Call to Action, to be delivered by Hoda Kanso, Co-Student Lead UCL Fight the Fakes – Don’t miss it!

Closing statement: Adam Aspinall, Senior Director, Access & Product Management, Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and Chair of the Fight The Fakes Alliance