YANGON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar has vowed to cooperate with countries in the region to combat transnational distributors of counterfeit medicine, Myanmar News Agency reported Wednesday.

At a meeting with French Ambassador Olivier Richard and diplomat Jean David Levitte, President of the Board of Directors of the International Institute of Research against Counterfeit Medicine (IRACM), Deputy Attorney-General U Win Myint warned of the dangerous side effect of counterfeit drugs that Myanmar and the rest of the world have to face, stressing the need to enforce effective laws and punishment to dissuade producers of such drugs.

There is an upcoming anti-counterfeit medicine workshop in the Greater Mekong Subregion where laws, policies and implementation to target counterfeit medicine are set to be discussed.

Myanmar has signed the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and enacted the National Drug Law in 1992 with amendment in 2014.

According to earlier report, over 1.8 billion kyats (1.32 million U.S. dollars) worth of seized fake medicines were destroyed in Yangon in last December.

Myanmar imported most of medicines from foreign countries as the country produces below 15 percent of national requirement.

The state-run Myanmar Pharmarceutical Factory (MPF) currently produces only 10 percent of the total consumption.