On 12 January 2016, the openMedicine project and the ALPhA Research Project on Internet Commerce and Pharmaceutical Crime exchanged and discussed their respective research activities and potential common interests.

ALPhA empirically investigates the structures around offenders and offences in this area of crime, collects data on pertinent national regulatory instruments, and will suggest private and public law regulatory alternatives. Its main activity is a comparative-law investigation of the criminal codes of the 28 EU Member States, taking in all aspects of substantive criminal law, criminal procedures, and cross-border legal cooperation. It will also develop technical tools for combating pharmaceutical crime on the internet.

This closely aligns to the European Commission policy; the EC warns that “buying medicines online: the wrong click could be fatal”. So-called “falsified medicines” – fake medicines that pass themselves off as a real, authorised medicine: are becoming a major threat to patient safety.

Both projects will keep each other informed about their progress, support each other whenever an opportunity arises, and invite each other to their respective final events.