Pharmacy Daily | Global hit to illegal meds

IN a coordinated global campaign, the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (ACBPS) and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) helped in a week of action against the trade in couterfeit and illegal medicines purchased over the internet. ‘Operation Pangea’ involved authorities from more than 100 countries, including the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which resulted in seizures totalling about £18.6m ($33.9m) globally, the MHRA said. In Australia, ACBPS officers seized 51 packages including more than 21,000 units of counterfeit or illegal medicines at the Sydney and Melbourne International mail centres, posted from various countries overseas, with one unit being one tablet, pill, ampoule, one litre of liquid medicine or one kg or raw material. A large number of seized substances being erectile dysfunction or weight loss medications, the TGA and ACBPS said. TGA national manager Professor John Skerritt said this was a reminder for consumers of the risks of purchasing medicines from overseas websites, with the TGA advising extreme caution when doing so. The MHRA said the crackdown resulted in 237 arrests worldwide, targeting 10,603 websites. UK seizures showed the most commonly seized drugs were erectile dysfunction medicines at 1.2m doses, slimming products at 383,000 and drugs such as sleeping pills, tranquilisers and antidepressants at 330,996 doses. The FDA and the US Customs and Border Protection also investigated international mail facilities in the US, with the detention or seizure of 19,618 packages containing medicines said to be from Australia, the UK, New Zealand and Canada, but actually containing unapproved or suspected counterfeit drugs from other countries such as India, China, Australia and the UK.

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