FDA targets more than 1,000 websites selling fake drugs

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), along with international police organization Interpol, has targeted more than 1,000 websites that sell fake, unapproved medicines and medical devices.

The FDA’s actions included issuing warnings to the site operators and the seizing counterfeit drugs and medical devices that had been sold illegally.

They were taken as part of Operation Pangea VIII, an international effort organised by Interpol to identify distributors of illegal prescription drugs and devices online and to remove them from the supply chain.

The operation involved law enforcement, customs and regulatory authorities from 115 countries.

The FDA sent warning letters to nearly 400 website operators offering the bogus drugs and to nine companies that had been selling the unapproved medical devices online.

FDA inspectors, along with other federal agencies, also screened and seized counterfeit products received through mail facilities in Chicago, Miami and New York.

As a result, 814 parcels were detained or referred to FDA offices.

Any parcels found to violate the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act were refused entry into the US.

According to the FDA, a number of fake medicines that purported to be approved generic drugs including Valium, HIV drug Truvada and asthma treatment Advair Diskus were also seized.

The enforcement action ran from June 9 to June 16.

George Karavetsos, director of the FDA’s office of criminal investigations, said: “Our efforts to protect the health of American patients by preventing the online sale of potentially dangerous illegal medical products will not cease.

“Operation Pangea VIII provides yet another avenue for the FDA to engage with our international law enforcement partners on these critical issues.”