“We regularly receive reports from sites that sell products illegally. We make complaint deposits, but it is very difficult to follow, they close and reappear immediately elsewhere, “deplores AFP Carine Wolf-Thal, president of the National Order of Pharmacists.
Since 2013, pharmacies established in France can offer online sales of drugs not subject to compulsory medical prescription. However, on the Internet, a simple research from a molecule reveals dozens of sites usurping the identity of pharmacies and selling drugs subject to prescription. Some can be promoted by emails, advertisements on social networks or false health blogs.
According to the latest report of the Cybersecurity Gen group, France would be “the most targeted country” by these false pharmacie sites, called “Pharmafraud”, details Michal Salàt, Director of Research on Avast – Enterprise belonging to the Group.
In the world, the researchers have identified a network of “more than 5,000 false sites marketing treatment” and more than “151,000 Pharmafraud attacks have been blocked” by Avast since January in France, he adds. According to the expert, “the strong adoption of electronic commerce in the health sector” as well as the “occasional difficulties of supply of medicines” make France a “fertile land” for this type of scam.
Contaminated products
For its part, the cybermalveillance.gouv.fr platform also indicates that AFP has identified since last year “a notable number of records of suspicious domains with the term + pharmacy +”. “It’s dramatic. There are a lot of fraud to drugs, it is difficult to quantify, but it is very dangerous, ”comments Pierre-Olivier Variot, president of the Union of Unions of Frame Pharmacists (USPO).
According to the Institute for Research Anti-CONTREFULATION of drugs, 96 % of online pharmacies are illegal; While the World Health Organization estimates that half of the drugs sold on the Internet would be falsified.
Because if some false sites are content to steal the personal, medical or banking data from buyers, others really deliver counterfeit or unregulated drugs. These false tablets may contain either the right ingredients but in an incorrect and particularly high dosage, or another active compound, or even no active substance. Some are even contaminated by toxic additives, including heavy metals or unknown chemicals.
And no product is spared. Treatments against erection disorders (Viagra, Cialis) have been the most popular for several years, but some antidiabetics such as Ozempic – very popular on social networks to lose weight – are also acclaimed. “People may want to avoid going to a doctor, then a pharmacist, who could refuse them to issue if he suspects a misuse,” regrets Ms. Wolf-Thal.
“Not a Marketplace”
Today, supply tensions – such as the one that has known since January several psychiatric drugs such as Quétiapine or Setraline – can also attract patients.
“Some people are so anxious at the idea of not having their drugs that they try to find all the possible solutions, even if it means adopting behaviors that seem completely aberrant,” regrets Pierre-Olivier Variot.
While some actors would like to simplify the online sale of without prescription drugs, the pharmacist calls on the State to “stay on a hard line”. Likewise, the national order of pharmacists wonders about the “utility” of electronic commerce when the mesh of pharmacies makes it possible to obtain “a drug quickly with the advice of a pharmacist”.
