La comercialización de productos farmacéuticos falsificados y la reparación integral a las víctimas

Abstract

The fundamental right to health is undermined by the counterfeiting of medicines, a business that endangers consumer health. In Ecuador, the counterfeiting of medicines is penalized under the Organic Comprehensive Criminal Code (COIP, by its Spanish acronym). Additionally, the Agency for Regulation, Control, and Sanitary Surveillance (ARCSA, by its Spanish acronym) was established as part of the measures adopted by the State to fulfill its obligations to guarantee access to quality, safe, and effective medicines. However, these measures do not have sufficient impact on rights as important as health, especially when we observed that most victims lack access to adequate reparation, as no surveys have been conducted to identify them. Therefore, by becoming aware of the consumption of such medicines, these victims may resort to jurisdictional guarantees to assert their right to comprehensive reparation, adopting various measures to restore the violated right to its previous state.