This traffic, facilitated by the explosion of electronic commerce, is considered significantly more profitable than drug trafficking.
(AFP / Gerard Julien)
Bad active substance, bad dosage, bad excipients … Falsified drugs are booming around the world, brought the proliferation of unregulated sites, thus facilitating the development of a global market of illicit drugs. This scourge constitutes both a threat to public health and a major economic issue.
• False drugs: what is it?
Falsified drugs are products whose identity, composition or source is deliberately represented in a deceptive manner, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
They can contain either the right ingredients but in an incorrect dosage, or another active compound, or even no active substance. Or bad excipients. It can also be
real diverted drugs to be sold illegally
often without the knowledge of patients, but in other cases, they are deliberately sought to be used as
dopants or psychotropic drugs
.
Although authentic originally, 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 syndicate of drug companies in France (Leem).
Ditto for
exposed exposed drugs to be sold
Or that leave the legal distribution chain via false orders.
The societal context promotes the dissemination of falsified drugs, such as “the emergence of a culture of self -medication and 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 consume medicines without medical advice, some are now seduced by the idea of buying drugs without a prescription, especially online,” added 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 because 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 and 2023,
The death of 300 children
in Gambia, Uzbekistan and Indonesia, who had taken pediatric syrups against frelated cough with antifreeze to be overwhelmed had a great reaction from the WHO.
• A galloping and lucrative global scourge
“No region of the world is spared, nor any therapeutic domain”, summarizes Meriem Bourahla-Loudiyi, which leads the anti-contaisse group to the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries (EFPIA).
This traffic, facilitated by the explosion of electronic commerce with the multiplication of unregulated sites, is
Considered much more profitable than drug trafficking.
The operation “Pangea XVII” 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 for erectile dysfunction, such as
Viagra
was particularly targeted by the illicit trafficking in drugs.
“Pharmaceutical criminals” always adapt to demand, targeting products with high added value ranging from
Therapies against cancer
passing through
Treatments of chronic diseases and anxiolytics
notes Meriem Bourahla-Loudiyi.
Since 2023, drugs that treat metabolism disorders, as
Antidiabetics and anti-obesity
joined the therapeutic fields most affected by counterfeiting alongside the
Central genitar and 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, which are part respectively
Ozempic and Wegovy
.
