Building Awareness and Capacity Among Bulgarian and Romanian Officers to Counter Trafficking of Falsified Medicines Containing NPS
10 June 2022, United States - The International Narcotic Control Board's (INCB) Global Rapid Interdiction of Dangerous Substances (GRIDS) Programme provided awareness raising to the threat of non-medical synthetic opioids, emerging benzodiazepine analogues and other new psychotropic substances (NPS) found in falsified medicines at the United States Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) Workshop on the Investigation and Handling of Counterfeit Medicine Cases.
The 7-9 June 2022 event hosted at the USPTO Global Intellectual Property Academy in Alexandria, Virginia, brought together 28 officers and experts from Bulgaria and Romania customs, public prosecution, law enforcement and health regulatory agencies to discuss the latest trends and threats from illicitly manufactured, falsified and substandard medications. The workshop included various approaches to enhance the exchange of information both nationally, regionally and internationally.
Officials from Bulgaria and Romania presented on ongoing challenges and achievements in combatting trafficking in falsified and substandard products in their respective countries, while experts from the U.S. National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, U.S. Postal Inspection Services (USPIS), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Criminal Investigations, INCB, Interpol, and Universal Postal Union (UPU) addressed transnational threats from overseas consignments trafficked via postal and courier channels.
Mr. Matthew Nice, manager of INCB's global OPIOIDS Project presented real-time global, regional and national trafficking information involving illicitly manufactured, falsified and substandard preparations containing dangerous substances, such as fentanyl analogues not under international control. INCB also offered training guides on awareness, safe handling and interdiction of synthetic opioids and their related chemicals and offered information and access to the Project ION Incident Communication System (IONICS) and the GRIDS Intelligence targeting platforms. Mr. Nice emphasized the Board's practical approach to voluntary multi-agency and industry cooperation to stop traffickers.
The Board's Global Rapid Interdiction of Dangerous Substances (GRIDS) Programme and its Project ION and global OPIOIDS Project and its Public-Private Partnerships initiatives support Governments' capacity to respond to changing trafficking, illicit manufacture, marketing and sales of NPS, synthetic opioids and fentanyl-related substances by facilitating real-time information exchange, intelligence development and actions that interdict distribution of dangerous substances.
The event was made possible through generous support from the U.S. Department of State.
Click here to learn more about the GRIDS Programme
Click here to learn more about the OPIOIDS Project
Click here to learn more about the Project ION