Sanofi-Aventis launches 'anti-counterfeit medication' initiative

On the sidelines of the roundtable meeting hosted by Sanofi-Aventis at the Semiramis Intercontinental Hotel today to review the results of the first phase of the initiative, Dr. Niven Al-Khoury, Sanofi-Aventis Public Affairs Director, stated, "Patient care is Sanofi-Aventis' top priority. This initiative is one of the mechanisms adopted by Sanofi-Aventis to protect the patients through fighting counterfeit medication in the Egyptian market, a phenomenon that risks the lives of many people."

"In order for Sanofi-Aventis to bring global expertise in the pharmaceutical industry and fighting counterfeit medication to the local market, an Egyptian delegation including officials from the Ministry of Health, the Customs Authority and the Ministry of Interior's Anti-smuggling Unit from the Ministry of Finance, visited the Customs Authority in Le Havre to review anti-smuggling measures before visiting the French Ministry of Health. The delegation also visited Sanofi-Aventis' latest laboratories-located in Paris - that detect counterfeit medicines to witness the state-of-the-art techniques used in there," she added.

Sanofi-Aventis is the leading firm in fighting counterfeit medicines as it has a specialized Security Division that follows up the phenomenon on the international level and also laboratories equipped with cutting edge technologies that detect counterfeit medication.

The company has already completed the first phase of the initiative through which it participated in training the concerned authorities on how to use the latest methods to detect counterfeit medicines.

The three-phase initiative is a new stage of the prosperous cooperation between Sanofi-Aventis and the Ministry of Health. The Egyptian government works on protecting genuine trademarks through promoting the culture and aiming to protect consumers from substandard and counterfeit medicines. Sanofi-Aventis launches this initiative as part of its celebration of 50-year active presence in the Egyptian market and within its continuous commitment to the Egyptian Community aiming to provide highest quality and safe drugs to the patients, an issue that Sanofi-Aventis always prioritizes.