Counterfeit medicinal products - one of the topics of the conference on the protection of intellectual property
During a conference co-organised by the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland and the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University, Jan Jakubczyk, Director of the Internal Control and Compliance Management Department of the Chief Pharmaceutical Inspectorate, presented the issue of trade in counterfeit medicinal products.
The event, held under the banner of '20 years of the directive on the enforcement of intellectual property rights', brought together a wide range of practitioners and theoreticians dealing with this issue. One of the topics was the fight against illegally marketed medicinal products. It was emphasised that, in the case of counterfeit medicines, industrial property infringements are often linked to serious health risks for patients. Up to one million people die each year worldwide as a result of using such products. This is a dramatic scale that makes this phenomenon one of the most serious global public health challenges and requires close cooperation between institutions responsible for the safety of patients.
The Chief Pharmaceutical Inspectorate closely cooperates with law enforcement authorities and special services responsible for legal and operational activities relating to the fight against counterfeiting of medicinal products. Due to the cross-border nature of the phenomenon, an active presence of the Inspectorate in international structures dealing with the safety of medicines and pharmaceutical crimes is also an important element of effective counteraction.
The conference took place on 23-24 October 2025. On behalf of the GIF, it was attended by Director Jan Jakubczyk, who gave a lecture entitled 'Selected aspects of pharmaceutical counterfeit products from the perspective of the Chief Pharmaceutical Inspectorate', and - as a participant - Marcin Antoniak from the Department of Internal Control and Compliance Management.