The “Medicrime Convention” as an anti-crime instrument in the field of the counterfeiting of medical products in Ukraine

Abstract

Aim. To study the compliance of the measures provided for by the “Medicrime Convention” with the organizational and legal measures used in Ukraine in order to increase the effectiveness of countering counterfeiting of medicinal products, as well as developing recommendations for their improvement.
Results. The “Medicrime Convention” contains an effective international legal mechanism to combat the counterfeiting of medical products and similar crimes involving threats to public health. The Convention provides for the establishment of criminal liability for certain types of crimes in this area and the possibility of international legal cooperation in identifying and detecting these crimes, the search for criminals,
their detention, other international cooperation in this area. The effectiveness of this mechanism at the international and national levels, including Ukraine, is directly proportional to the following two factors:
the breadth of dissemination of this mechanism among countries and the quality of the implementation of the relevant provisions of the Convention in the national legislation and the practice of its application.
Conclusions. A serious obstacle to the proper use of the “Medicrime Convention” mechanism by Ukraine is the substantial incompleteness of the implementation of its provisions in the current national legislation and practice of its application, as well as the relatively small number of countries that have joined this mechanism. To eliminate these shortcomings, it is necessary: to adopt a regulatory act at the national level to bring the national legislation in line with the “Medicrime Convention”; to use the available opportunities at the international level to popularize these provisions.