Illegal online pharmacies cause losses to pharmaceutical manufacturers

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Losses amounting to several billions of euros are caused to official pharmaceutical companies annually by tens of thousands of online pharmacies.
      Illegal medicines bought from the Internet are often stolen or counterfeit drugs, and frequently the contents of these cheap copies is not what it should be.
      According to the World Health Organization WHO, around 10 per cent of the medicines sold worldwide are pirated drugs.
     
American MarkMonitor, the global leader in Internet fraud prevention and brand protection, published a survey last week, looking into more than 3,000 online drug stores and their products. Only four of the stores had a proper licence.
      "The survey indicates that brandjackers always exploit just new brands, using more and more sophisticated methods. In this case they are attacking the pharmaceutical industy", says MarkMonitor’s Irfan Salim.
      Drugs are being advertised on the Internet, by sending e-mails to potential customers, and advertising for example Viagra, the erection enhancer, as well as some of the most popular slimming medicines and antidepressants.
      "Such e-mails come mainly from enterprises with no proper licence. I myself would never risk my health by buying medicines from the Internet", said Suvi-Anne Siimes, the General Director of Pharma Industry Finland.
     
Last year, Finnish Customs confiscated 180,000 counterfeit pills, the majority of which were potency and slimming medicines. At the same time, a total of 532 pharmaceutical offences occurred. However, Anssi Kartila from the National Board of Customs believes that this is just the tip of the iceberg.
      "It is surprising what large quantities of pharmaceuticals are bought from the Internet, even though the risks are so high. After all, one can never be sure of the contents of the drug", notes Kartila.
      By June, a total of 140,000 pills had already been confiscated by the Finnish customs authorities, which means that this year’s figures will be considerably higher than those for last year.
     
The illegal drug business is frequently run by criminals. The organisation usually imports large batches consisting tens of thousands of tablets.
      "Part of the imported drugs may be transported further, for example to Russia. However, medicines are also smuggled for the domestic market. More and more frequently, we confiscate pharmaceuticals in connection with drug raids. Counterfeit medicines are a large business worldwide", Kartila reports.
     
Authorities work in close cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, in order to intervene in the sales of counterfeit medicines. Nevertheless, the markets for pirated pharmaceuticals are expanding.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Get up, stand up (1.8.2006)

Links:
  Finnish Customs
  World Health Organization
  Pharma Industry Finland

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