Bad medicine: lessons from an enduring alliance between big pharma and global policing

The challenges of tackling international crime with national law enforcement are legion, writes John Binns, partner in the Financial Crime team at BCL Solicitors, in an Expert View piece. He considers how Interpol’s Operation Pangea illustrates how they can be overcome in the context of the global fight against illicit medicines.

A world of problems

What can be done about the sale of illicit medicines? The question illustrates a familiar challenge in the world of law enforcement, in that a problem we as consumers and taxpayers can see as straightforwardly needing tough and enduring action is made harder to solve by two fundamental features of the landscape.