ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS IN PREVENTING THE COUNTERFEIT MEDICINES ENTRY INTO THE WORLD MARKETS

30 years have passed since Conference of Experts on the Rational Use of Drugs was held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 25 to 29 November 1985, where the problem of counterfeit medicines was mentioned as the international for the first time. The problem of counterfeit medicines is not only a major threat to public health and national and private economy, but also it is of great interest for key decision-making actors at the international level. The authors analyzed what has been done since that time by international organizations. Combating the counterfeiting of medicines cannot be successfully achieved by the health sector alone - World Health Organization (WHO), - so the efforts of the other United Nations (UN) organizations relevant to counterfeiting were in need and were studied in the article: World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), World Trade Organization (WTO), World Customs Organization (WCO), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), etc. Today WHO is unable to coordinate all their activities, so the few existing proposals for establishing a new mechanism of international cooperation have been examined. Will the MEDICRIME Convention that will enter into force on January 1, 2016 be the start of the new era in the combating with the counterfeit medicines? - the authors offered their vision on the international developments.