The sale of dangerous counterfeit medicine is now a global business worth more than 75 billion dollars, an expert warned yesterday.
Sales of these medicines have doubled in the last five years – and are now increasingly infiltrating legitimate pharmacies, according to Dr Graham Jackson, editor of the International Journal of Clinical Practice.
Across Europe, seizures of counterfeit medicine were responsible for ten per cent of all materials detained by the authorities in 2009, he reports. And a European study involving some 14,000 people found that one in five had purchased prescription only medicines without a prescription.
And the UK has faced nine product recalls in the last three years because fake products reached the NHS supply line.
One British study looked at 96 websites that sell pain-killers and found that half of them sell prescription-only drugs – mostly without requiring prescriptions.
Another analysis by the European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines concluded that 62 per cent of medicines ordered on-line were sub-standard or counterfeit.
Dr Jackson said: "There have also been reports of deaths from Internet drugs and some investigators suspect that many more have been overlooked or wrongly attributed to other causes.
"It is vital that healthcare professionals play a proactive role in fighting the rise in counterfeit medicines by reporting all suspected cases to the relevant health authorities.
"And patients should be advised to avoid unregulated internet pharmacies and to be suspicious of sites offering prescription only medication without a prescription or at substantial discounts."
* Some 28,000 suspected fake medicines were seized yesterday in raids across England. Police said the drugs, intended to treat male problems, were worth about £140,000.
Raids took place in Loughborough, Leicestershire, and south-east London.
Danny Lee-Frost, of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, said:
"These raids demonstrate the MHRA’s commitment to finding those attempting to deal with falsified medicines and send a very clear message that those responsible will not benefit from their criminality.
"It is the role of the MHRA to ensure the public have access to acceptably safe medicines and this action has prevented potentially unsafe medicines from reaching the public."
Assessing the problem of counterfeit medications in the United Kingdom. Jackson et al. International Journal of Clinical Practice. March 2012 66.3, pp241-250. doi: 10.1111/j.1742-1241.2011.02826.x
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