The National Intellectual Property Office and the Sri Lanka Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industry (SLCPI) together with the Embassy of the United States of America and the American Chamber of Commerce hosted a workshop in Jaffna recently titled "Protecting Sri Lankan Families from Counterfeit Drugs.

The workshop was attended by 100 participants including pharmacists, police officers and health officers in the region.

Virtually every country in the world is grappling with the scourge of fake, counterfeit, and unregistered drugs - just as Sri Lanka is, speaking at the seminar Mr. Edward Heartney, Economic Counselor of the U.S. Embassy, said.

"It is important that when a person goes to the pharmacy to purchase medicine for a sick family member, or orders medicine from an on-line provider, that he or she can be certain that the medicine is genuine. And for that reason, I'm particularly pleased to see the active participation of Sri Lanka's pharmacists, chemists, pharmacy students and pharmacy owners today. As you know, you play perhaps the most critical role in this matter," he further said.

Dr. DM Karunaratne, Director General, of the National Intellectual Property Office, and Mr. T Mahadevan, retired Food and Drugs Inspector, Health Ministry also made presentations regarding the intellectual property laws applicable to pharmaceuticals and the mechanisms set up to enforce them.