Europe to follow Turkish model on medicines

ANKARA

The Council of Europe will follow the Drug Tracking System (ITS) of Turkey in a European project whereby patients can reach medication safely.

A senior official with the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and HealthCare (EDQM), Francois Xavier Lery closely observed the ITS in Turkey and took notes for the council's drug tracking project, eTACT.
Lery spoke to the Anadolu Agency (AA) after observing medical depots, pharmacies and hospitals of Turkey.
"Turkey's ITS is a model for us," Lery stated, adding "we want to benefit from Turkey's experiences in implementing the eTACT".
"Members of the council have different laws on medicines and there are differences in marketing and pharmacy systems. Plus, marketing medicines on the internet poses a problem for us. Accordingly, the eTACT project may not be implemented as easily as the ITS," Lery underlined.
"I watched how the ITS works in Turkey. I was a witness of how smoothly the ITS functions. It was a good experience for me to observe the ITS," Lery stressed.
When reminded that Turkey solved the problem of fake medication through the ITS and asked if Europe would be able to solve a similar problem by the eTACT, Lery said that measures had to be taken at European customs gates in order to deal with fake medication.
"We believe that the eTACT project will be effective in dealing with fake medicines and patients will be able to reach medication safely," Lery also said.