SSFFC: hard to pronounce, harder to define

The complex terminology “Substandard/spurious/falsely-labelled/ falsified/counterfeit” (SSFFC) medical products was proposed 6 years ago by the Director General as a provisional term.  Disappointedly, as time has passed, the only one element that changed is the temporary use of the terminology.

Why are these terms concerning? Because they conflate the issue of the quality of medicines with asserted breaches of intellectual property rights.

In a statement made on January 29, 2016, People's Health Movement expressed the need a clear definition of the different types of medical products, and raises a concern regarding generic medicines, that could be wrongly added to this melting pot or erroneousely identified as products of lower quality. This would lead to an inacceptable and dramatic reduction to affordability and access to medicines.

PHM and UAEM activists are at the EB 138 as part of PHM's WHO watch initiative. You can follow the watching here