Fake medications are easy to sell. This is especially the case with hamper products.
It is difficult to identify suspicious sales platforms. How can patients protect?
Are drug counterfeiters step ahead of supervisory bodies?
Experts and associations of the pharmaceutical industry have reasons for fear that state regulatory agencies cannot keep a step and rule the situation.
“Humbling injections”
This challenge is especially visible in products with huge demand such as an Ozempica, Wegovya and Zepbound.
Remedies known as “Impaired injections” contain active semaglutide or tirzepatis ingredients, which are originally developed to treat type 2 diabetes.
They also lead to significant and permanent weight loss.
The consequence is that more people want to lose weight with their assistance, which leads to growing demand for these drugs that many are buying, which leads to shortages.
But the counterfeits quickly filled this gap.
Fake-medications are a global problem. World Health Organization (WHO) estimates: every tenth medicine is a forgery, without a guarantee that it has a health benefit.
This is a particularly problem in low and medium-sized income countries, especially in parts of Africa and Asia. But even in rich countries about one percent of people procure drugs from unverified sources.
In some cases, the ingredients of these products can be simply ineffective. Also, side effects or new health problems may occur.
– Whoever procures non-designed and unverified online stores over the Internet, is potentially exposed to the adequate assessment, received another 2023. Years of assemblies, when it issued the first warnings when it comes to this problem.
A year later, the WHO warned of the forged series of Medicament “Ozzzpic”, which flood the black market.
According to the British Association of Pharmacist NPA, every fifth Briton tried to get hatred drugs last year.
High demand for these drugs carries a risk, because people “reach unlicensed online suppliers, instead of procuring drugs from pharmacies.”
Where do people buy falsified drugs?
Unchanced medications are sold in online pharmacies, on international drug purchase sites and through organized criminal trafficking chains.
These are not online stores established pharmacies, but websites, which seemingly offer medications at a significantly lower price than the one for which the originals are sold.
Online products look authentic, but in the delivery to the packaging, spell errors can often be seen or inaccurate in the ingredients.
The problem is not just falsified medications or placebo. Supervisory bodies are increasingly worried because official approved medications are mixed and real new medications – individual for patients.
In some regions of the world, including the United States, the trained pharmacists should produce their medications in this way.
Supervisory bodies
In the United States, some pharmacies specialize in this “preparation (compounding)”.
However, their products are not subject to the same strict checks that are subject to certified drug production companies, which must meet strict requirements for the placement of their products on the market.
In order to counterpart the shortships, the US Agency of the FDA temporarily allowed the preparation of hating medications.
Some pharmacists used semaglutide salts instead of semaglutides – which have not been approved by supervisory bodies, resulting in side effects.
And they don’t only produce compounding-pharmacies of this medicine in the United States.
– It happens in places like gym and spa-centers, “he said for Deutsche Welle Saifuddin Ahmed, Health Exp and Epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
In the meantime, the FDA withdrew approval for these independently produced versions of hating drugs.
However, the FDA fears that unintentional online dealers continue to offer lower quality products.
– Physicians just write recipes. They don’t check where the patient buys the drug – said Ahmed.
He believes that medical experts are greater responsibility in raising awareness of this topic.
Where to be sure to buy medicine
Ahmed at Johns Hopkins University leads the initiative called Besafe. The measures are explored in the prevention of preventing non-performing and counterfeit medications.
Besafe Research has shown that in the US and South Africa is limited knowledge about where prescription medications can be purchased safely and report counterfeits or unwanted side effects.
Ahmed says that more confidence between consumers, doctors and supervisory bodies could help avoid buying forged and unintentioned drugs.
To protect consumers from insecure products, the FDA has launched the BesaferX campaign. Here consumers can find out what they need to pay attention to online pharmacies and drugs ordered online.
In the European Union, safety labels are required for medicines, including marking standards. The European Medicine Agency of EMA was informed in writing Deutsche Welle:
– Patients should buy medicines only in online retailers, which are registered with the competent institutions in EU Member States, to reduce the risk of purchasing low-quality or counterfeitured drugs.
Europol, EU Police Agency, is responsible for the prosecution of those engaged in the criminal actions of illicit trade of unregulated drugs in the Member States.
During the multi-month operation 2023. year, almost 1,300 people were charged with committed commercial and misused drugs and doping.
During the operation, goods such as tablets, active ingredients, raw materials and materials worth 64 million euros were seized, Factor.
