Dear Colleagues,

It is a great pleasure for me to invite you to the 3rd International Conference "Strategies against Falsified / Counterfeit Medicines" in Würzburg. After two successful conferences in November 2008 and April 2010, this is the third conference on this topic, again supported by the University of Würzburg.

Counterfeit APIs and medicines pose a growing threat to patients worldwide, with increasing numbers in Europe and the USA. Customs all over the world find more and more illegally produced drugs. Moreover, drugs are increasingly sold via the internet making it much easier to put counterfeits into circulation.

Thus, strategies against counterfeited medicines become more important. With this in mind, our new conference programme will focus on:

• The new Falsified Medicine Directive and the revised EU Good Distribution Practice Guide
• Case studies for anti-counterfeiting strategies in pharmaceutical companies
• The new tamper verification feature initiative
• Actual track&trace (T&T) developments in Europe ("securPharm", EDQM's eTACT) and coding and T&T requirements worldwide
• FDA's anti-counterfeit strategies and current activities

The aim of this event is to provide a platform for interesting and interactive discussions with regulatory authority representatives, industry experts, university colleagues and delegates from suppliers of anti-counterfeiting products and systems to exchange experiences on the various aspects of anti-counterfeiting activities. 

It will be a great pleasure for me to welcome you in Würzburg on behalf of the Institute of Pharmacy and Food Chemistry of our University.

Prof. Dr. Ulrike Holzgrabe
Chair of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry
University of Würzburg