madam president i too would like to congratulate the rapporteur
when we look at medicine in today's global markets we see that there are no borders
therefore we have no option but to deal with the issue of counterfeit medicine in a global manner
only by a united eu approach can we tackle the increasing counterfeit products available to the public available not only through the shop floor but via distribution services such as the internet
the directive presses all the right buttons and goes some way towards addressing the problem
could we have gone further
the answer is yes
should we have gone further
here i must say no
we have laid down tighter controls on prescription medicine as a first step
we have addressed the internet pharmacy issue
we have looked at the safety features
yes we could have gone further on the traceability taking it up to the patient but this is a battle that we would have lost and it would have delayed the directive
as they say rome was not built in a day
i look forward to building on the foundations of this directive
