Criminal Combating the Counterfeiting of Medical Products in International Instruments and Iranian Law

Counterfeit in medical products, including medicine and medical devices is an illegal and harmful behavior that threatens public health and well-being of citizens. The dangerous consequences of this growing criminal phenomenon raise the question of how the international community has reacted to the phenomenon at the level of international instruments and with what measures has it pursued a criminal combat against it? What is the status of the issue in Iranian law? The findings of this study, which uses a descriptive analytical approach, show that despite the efforts made by the World Health Organization and special structures created to combat this phenomenon, concluding an instrument in its global status has failed. However, the Council of Europe by focusing on public health and separating it from intellectual property, by ratifying the MEDICRIME Convention and developing prevention strategies and by the use of criminal law, protection of victims and international cooperation organized a combat against this phenomenon; and by defining the necessary concepts committed member states to criminalize certain behaviors. The Council also established a criminal combat against counterfeits and similar crimes involving threats to public health by anticipating punishment and some effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions, and while building coordination between member states, significantly revolutionized the combat against counterfeits in medical products. Nonetheless, the ratification of a new international instrument could make up for some of its shortcomings. In Iran, different and uncoordinated laws are responsible for the criminal combat against the phenomenon, and incomplete criminalization, such as neglect of medical devices and some related materials necessitates the enactment of a new law dealing with medical and medicinal issues, taking advantage of all strategies in combating against this public health phenomenon.