A major fake medicines operation covering 45 countries took place between 5th and 12th October.  The success is staggering and very impressive.  The statistics speak for themselves:-

1,014,043 illicit counterfeit pills worth £1.62 million seized.  Internet monitoring revealed 694 websites potentially engaged in illegal activity.

In the UK premises connected to 12 websites were raided by the MHRA with police support ranging from London to Newcastle, Glasgow, Devon, Poole, Clacton-on-Sea, Ludlow and Boston in Lincolnshire.  The Metropolitan Police Central e-Crime Unit are working with ISPs and intend  to close down a further 183 websites. In addition, MHRA and UK Border Agency (UKBA) officers seized £570,000 worth of illicit medicines including quantities of controlled drugs.  Many types of fake medicines were found including Viagra, Cialis and Levitra.

MHRA Head of Enforcement, Mick Deats, said  “These websites often look like the real deal, but if they don’t carry the internet pharmacy logo of the General Pharmaceutical Council and have a ‘bricks and mortar’ address, then they are often dealing illegally.

“This week we have recovered a range of different medicines being supplied with no prescription and stored in unacceptable conditions by persons unqualified to dispense medicines. An illegal supplier might be good at setting up a website, but that does not make them a pharmacist.

“The dangers of purchasing medicines from an unregulated source are that you just don’t know what you are taking,” he said. “The dosages could be either too high or too low, contain no pharmaceutical ingredient or a totally different ingredient to that stated.

“Illegal suppliers have no quality control or standards to abide by and people who purchase medicine from these sources will never know where the tablets they are putting in their mouths have actually originated from or what they contain. If customers could see the filthy conditions in which some of these medicines were being transported, stored and handled, they wouldn’t touch them,” he added.

Clinic Europe, who do have an address and do dispense from a registered pharmacy, are delighted by this massive action against organised crime.  We will support any MHRA action and often report websites we suspect.