A more profitable business than drugs

Electronic commerce has led to a proliferation of unregulated sites. Similarly, thus facilitating the development of a global market for illicit drugs. Meanwhile, This scourge constitutes both a threat to public health and a major economic issue.

False drugs: what is it? – More profitable business than drugs

Falsified drugs are products including identity. Consequently, composition or source is deliberately represented in a deceptive wayaccording 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. However, Or bad excipients.

It can also be Real diverted drugs To be sold illegally. often without the knowledge of more profitable business than drugs 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 union of drug companies in France (Leem).

Ditto for expired drugs Reconditioned to be sold or leaving the legal distribution chain via false ordinances.

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 – More profitable business than drugs

“While before the patients hesitated to consume medicines without medical advice. some are now seduced by the idea of buying drugs without a prescriptionespecially more profitable business than drugs online, ”adds Servier.

Falsified drugs represent a important 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 cough with antigel put over the sale, had aroused a strong reaction from the WHO.

A galloping. lucrative global scourge

“No region of the world is spared or no therapeutic field,” sums up Meriem Bourahla-Loudiyi, who heads the Anti-Creeding Group to the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries more profitable business than drugs (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 for erectile dysfunction, such as Viagrawas particularly targeted by the illicit trafficking in drugs.

The “pharmaceutical criminals” always adapt to demand. targeting products with high added value, ranging from therapies to cancer, including the treatments of chronic diseases and more profitable business than drugs anxiolytics, notes Ms. Bourahla-Loudiyi.

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.

With AFP

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