UK leads the way with £15.8m seizure of counterfeit and unlicensed medicines and devices
The seizures are the result of a month-long international crackdown on the illegal Internet trade of medical products
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has announced that £15.8m worth of counterfeit and unlicensed medicines and devices have been seized in the UK as part of a global operation.
The seizures, the biggest recorded to date in the UK, include huge quantities of illegally supplied and potentially harmful slimming pills, erectile dysfunction tablets, anaemia tablets and narcolepsy tablets. Unlicensed foreign medicines and fake condoms were also found and removed.
The seizures are the result of a month-long international crackdown on the illegal Internet trade of medical products that yielded £51.6m worth of items from 115 different countries globally.
The ‘Operation Pangea VIII’ initiative, co-ordinated through INTERPOL, concluded with a week of international raids between 9 and 16 June that resulted in 156 arrests worldwide. The operation also targeted websites that were offering falsified, counterfeit and unlicensed medicines and led to their closure or suspension by removal of their domain name or payment facility.
In the UK, MHRA enforcement officers, with assistance from local police, raided known addresses in connection with the illegal Internet supply of potentially harmful medicines. It resulted in the domestic seizure of almost 6.2m doses of falsified, counterfeit and unlicensed medicines, 15,000 of which were medical devices with a total value of £15.8m. The UK operation also resulted in 1380 websites being closed down, 339 of which were domestic sites.
MHRA Head of Enforcement, Alastair Jeffrey, said: ‘Operation Pangea is the global response to Internet-facilitated medicines and devices crime. As a result of our intelligence-led enforcement operations, we have seized £15.8m worth of counterfeit and unlicensed medicines and 15,000 devices in the UK alone, which is almost twice as much as we recorded last year, and clear evidence that this is a growing concern that has to be taken seriously.’
A breakdown of the UK seizures highlights the growing trend towards lifestyle medications and products that are unlicensed, falsified or controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. The majority of the products seized in UK originated from India, China, Hong Kong and Singapore. MHRA has continued to target YouTube accounts and videos as criminals seek to exploit new channels to profit from the illegal sale of medicines, resulting in the removal of more than 320 videos.
Alex Lawther from Border Force’s postal command, added: ‘Border Force regularly detects and seizes illegal and restricted products imported through the postal system including fake and unlicensed medicines. Our involvement in this operation with the MHRA demonstrates our commitment to combat this form of smuggling. Our message to the public is simple: don’t buy anything online unless you are certain it comes from a legitimate source.’