For example,
False drugs: global scourge exacerbated:
Electronic commerce has led to the proliferation of unregulated sites. For example, thus facilitating the development of a global market for illicit medicines. Similarly, Additionally, For example, This scourge constitutes both a threat to public health and a major economic issue.
• Read also: “People will pay it. Similarly. Moreover, even if it is the price of a tank”: after the Ozempic, the drug Wegovy is all the rage
• Read also: Enter $ 378,000 of counterfeit drugs purchased online in Canada
False drugs: what is it?
Falsified drugs are products whose identity. In addition, composition or source is deliberately represented in a deceptive manner, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
They can contain either the right ingredients. Meanwhile, but in an incorrect dosage or another active compound, or even no active substance. Therefore, Or false drugs: global scourge exacerbated bad false drugs: global scourge exacerbated excipients.
These can also be real diverted drugs to be sold illegally without the knowledge of patients. However, but in other cases, they are deliberately sought to be used as dopants or psychotropic drugs.
Although authentic originally. Therefore, a medication out of the official circuit. for example ordered on an illegal pharmacy site becomes de facto an illegal product: “From that moment, we are talking about falsified and diverted drugs”, underlines the union of drug companies in France (Leem).
Ditto for exposed exposed drugs to be sold or leaving the legal distribution chain via false prescriptions.
The societal context promotes the dissemination of falsified drugs. such as “the emergence of a culture of self -medication. autodiagnosis in countries where access to medical consultations has become too complex or restrictive”, observes the French laboratory Servier.
A danger to health
“While before the patients hesitated to false drugs: global scourge exacerbated consume medicines without medical advice. some false drugs: global scourge exacerbated are now seduced by the idea of buying drugs without a prescription. especially online,” adds Servier.
Falsified drugs represent a significant threat to public health worldwide, according to WHO.
They can be harmful if they contain contaminants or toxic substances. Their dangerousness is sometimes indirect, for example in the case of antimicrobials, as they increase the risk of pharmacoreistance. At best, they are ineffective.
“In any case. there is a major public health issue anyway. with more or less serious risks” but “people are not aware of it,” said Leem.
In 2022. 2023. the death of 300 children, in Gambia, Uzbekistan and Indonesia, who had taken pediatric syrups against frelated coughing with antigel free on sale had aroused a strong WHO reaction.
A galloping. lucrative global scourge
“No region of the world is spared. no therapeutic field,” sums up false drugs: global scourge exacerbated Meriem Bourahla-Loudiyi, who heads the Anti-Creeding Group to the European false drugs: global scourge exacerbated Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries (EFPIA).
This traffic. facilitated by the explosion of electronic commerce with the multiplication of unregulated sites. is considered to be much more profitable than drug trafficking.
The “Pangea XVII” operation overseen by Interpol, carried out between December 2024 and May 2025, allowed the seizure of 50.4 million doses of illicit pharmaceuticals, for a value of 56 million euros. Led in 90 countries. she led to the arrest of nearly 800 people, said in late June interpolge noting a “growing demand” for diabetes drugs.
The sanctions remain generally lower than those linked to drug trafficking, according to experts.
The most targeted drugs
For many years. treatments against erectile dysfunction, such as Viagra, was particularly targeted by the illicit trafficking in drugs.
The “pharmaceutical criminals” always adapt to demand. targeting high-added products ranging false drugs: global scourge exacerbated from therapies against cancer, including the treatments of chronic diseases and anxiolytics, notes Ms. Bourahla-Loudiyi.
false drugs: global scourge exacerbated
Since 2023. drugs that have treated metabolism disorders. such as antidiabetics and anti-obesity, have joined the therapeutic fields most affected by counterfeiting alongside genitar and central nervous systems.
In the summer of 2024. the WHO alerted to falsified lots. in several countries, of semaglutide drugs used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity, of which Ozempic and Wegovy are respectively.
False drugs: global scourge exacerbated
False drugs: global scourge exacerbated
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