UK seizure of £15.8 million worth of counterfeit and unlicensed medicines and devices

Today (18 June) The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announced that a staggering haul of fake and unlicensed medicines and devices have been seized across Britain as part of an ongoing global operation.

The huge haul totals around £15.8 million and the seizures represent the biggest to be recorded in the UK. The types of drugs to be counterfeited include massive amounts of the usual suspects that are often imitated; erectile dysfunction and slimming pills, in addition to anaemia and narcolepsy tablets. Fake condoms and unlicensed foreign medicines were also seized.

The MHRA instigated the ‘Operation Pangea VIII’ initiative with INTERPOL, carrying out a series of worldwide drug raids during the week of 9 and 16 June, leading to 156 arrests in numerous different countries.

In news that comes as a delight to Medical Specialists®, after ourselves publishing several articles on how to spot an illegal website/fake ‘pharmacy’, Operation Pangea VIII also involved the shutting down of illicit websites that were duping customers with falsified, counterfeit and unlicensed medicines.  These websites were hit with a closure or suspension by removal of their domain name or payment facility.

Closer to home the MHRA enforcement officers joined forces with local police to conduct raids on known suspect addresses across Britain, addresses connected to the illegal online supply of potentially deadly medicines.

This led to a seizure of nearly 6.2 million doses of falsified, counterfeit and unlicensed medicines in the UK, 15,000 of which were found to be medical devices that had an estimated total value of £15.8 million. Thanks to UK operations, 1,380 websites were shut down, 339 being domestic sites.

MHRA Head of Enforcement, Alastair Jeffrey, said: “Operation Pangea is the global response to internet-facilitated medicines and devices crime. As a result of our intelligence-led enforcement operations we have seized £15.8 million worth of counterfeit and unlicensed medicines and 15,000 devices in the UK alone – which is almost twice as much as we recorded last year, and clear evidence that this is a growing concern that has to be taken seriously.

“Criminals involved in the illegal supply of medical products through the internet aren’t interested in your health – they are interested in your money and are able to get this by selling you a potentially dangerous product, or by stealing your bank details. To protect your health, visit your GP, get a correct diagnosis and buy medicines from a legitimate high street or registered pharmacy which can trade online.”

Most of the products seized in UK were imported from overseas, with India, China, Hong Kong and Singapore being the main countries in question.

With crooks always looking at new means to target potential customers, this has resulted in the MHRA investigating YouTube accounts and videos – leading to over 320 videos being taken off the site.

On a more global scale, regulators and custom officials analysed almost 150,000 packages and seized in excess of 20.7 million doses of unlicensed and counterfeit medicines, worth about £51.6 million.
Alex Lawther, from Border Force’s postal command, added: “Border Force regularly detects and seizes illegal and restricted products imported through the postal system including fake and unlicensed medicines. Our involvement in this operation with the MHRA demonstrates our commitment to combat this form of smuggling. Our message to the public is simple – don’t buy anything online unless you are certain it comes from a legitimate source.”

Quit smoking for 15 years…and it could be like you had never smoked!

All smokers take note: new research has shown that those successfully quit smoking for a sustained period of 15 years, can massively decrease the chance of suffering with heart failure or even dying.

U.S. Scientists made the remarkable discovery that people who stopped smoking almost two decades previously, had a comparable risk to those that had never smoked before.

Despite the findings clearly being a positive for all smokers across the globe, heavier smokers – i.e. those that had gone through at least a packet of cigarettes each day for 32 years or more – still had a slightly increased risk of health problems.

However, lead researcher Dr Ali Ahmed, from the Washington DC VA Medical Center, is pretty clear with the message…people either need to cut down on their smoking, stop smoking as early as they can, or simply never start smoking.

He commented: “While all individuals who quit smoking will benefit from a decreased chance of death, to achieve the full complement of health benefits of smoking cessation of one who has never smoked, smokers need to smoke less and quit early, and for those are not smokers – never start smoking.”

The findings were extracted via the most recent data from the Cardiovascular Health Study, which comprised of 2,556 people that had claimed to never smoked, 629 present smokers and 1,297 previous smokers. Every participant in the study was aged 65 or over, and 312 of the previous smokers admitted to heavy cigarette usage – smoking at least one pack daily for 32 years or more.

After a 13 year follow-up evaluation, the proportion of never smokers and previous smokers who had suffered heart failure, was found to be 21% in both groups. Within the group of former smokers that had consumed one pack per day for at least 32 years, nearly 30% suffered heart failure.

Comparison of mortality risks among present smokers and heavy smokers to never smokers was an interesting find. Researchers accounted for factors such as age, sex, race, education, other health conditions and medications, discovering that present smokers were around twice more likely to die from other diseases in comparison to those that had never smoked, and previous smokers were found to be 26% more likely to die compared to the never smokers.

Dr Ahmed told Reuters: “When one smokes, it induces atherosclerosis, or the buildup of plaque in the arteries. However, when one quits smoking, the buildup of plaque and risk of blood of clots decreases, allowing one’s cardiovascular risk to return to normal over time.”

Atherosclerosis is the medical term used when a person’s arteries have become narrower and harderned, usually caused by a high level of ‘bad’ low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.
Statins like atorvastatin (Lipitor) and rosuvastatin (Crestor) are currently taken by around 7 million people in Britain, and work to decrease rates of LDL cholesterol by reducing the production of LDL cholesterol inside the liver. It is dangerous to have high rates of LDL cholesterol as this causes the atherosclerosis, resulting in a higher risk of heart attack, stroke and coronary heart disease.

Female Viagra drug Flibanserin on the cusp of FDA approval

Since Pfizer’s male impotence wonder drug Viagra first burst onto the scene an incredible 17 years ago, it was subsequently joined by Eli Lily’s Cialis and Bayer’s Levitra by 2003.

Over the next 12 years the industry has witnessed variations on these such as the lower-strength Cialis Daily tablets for the more ‘active’ male and Levitra orodispersible tablets – especially suitable for men who aren’t comfortable with swallowing pills, wanting to take it with some discretion and without the requirement of a glass of water.

Men also have the options of the newer erectile dysfunction treatment Spedra (Avanafil) or Vitaros cream – ideal for men that have not experienced success with the aforementioned PDE5 inhibitor tablets or cannot take PDE5s for medical reasons.

If all that wasn’t enough choice, men suffering with premature ejaculation have over-the-counter premature ejaculation treatments such as Stud 100 Spray, condoms containing benzocaine like Durex Performa (to prolong climax), whilst there is also prescription medication such as Priligy, which is taken orally and works to prolong a man’s sexual performance by an average of 200% to 300%.
Simply put, men are spoilt for choice when it comes to finding the right treatment option for sexual dysfunction, whether this be for persistent impotence or premature ejaculation problems.

So, what is there for women? If Medical Specialists® Pharmacy were to quiz our thousands of patients to come up with the name of an existing female sexual dysfunction treatment, we’d be surprised if anyone could muster a reply.

In early 2014 Medical Specialists® reported how British pharmaceutical company ORLIBID were developing a drug tentatively titled ‘ORL101’, aimed at boosting a woman’s sex drive, however no further information has been released about ORL101 since then.

However, Medical Specialists® are delighted to announce that a new pill to boost a woman’s libido could be one step closer after US experts gave its endorsement. This will be fantastic news for those that have fought for women’s sex drives to get a similar medical attention to deal put into it as the male treatments.

A panel of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisers decided to vote 18-6 in favour of recommending flibanserin, a daily pill nicknamed the ‘female Viagra’ and manufactured by Sprout Pharmaceuticals, who picked up the drug back in 2011 after its initial developer, Boehringer Ingelheim, decided to drop it.

The vote came following a testimony from various women who vigorously persuaded the agency to approve the drug and told of their fear of never being able to have sex again. The final judgement of course will have to come from the FDA themselves, with a verdict on suitability for public use due later this year.

Coincidentally, flibanserin, just like the discovery of Viagra, was an unintended find. The drug was firstly developed with the intention of treating depression, but wasn’t as effective for this purpose as expected.

Many of the 11,000 women involved in the trials did note that they were experiencing some rather unexpected side effects from the flibanserin. Increased sexual interest and overall, more satisfying sexual experiences than previous, were being commonly reported.

North Carolina drug maker Sprout Pharmaceuticals, have claimed that their clinical trials have demonstrated that women have experienced a 37% rise in sexual desire in comparison to a placebo. The women reported an average of between 0.5 and one more sexually satisfying events each month, compared to those women taking a placebo. In addition, they had higher scores on questionnaires on desire and scored lower on questions about stress.

The drug – which changes brain chemistry as opposed to Viagra increasing blood flow – isn’t without a chequered history though, with the FDA twice rejecting the drug since 2010, arguing flibanserin’s benefits did not outweigh the risks, which can include low blood pressure and fainting spells.

However, Susan Scanlan, chairwoman of Even The Score, hit back and noted that Viagra can have varying side effects, arguing that the FDA hasn’t approved flibanserin because of their discomfort with women taking control over their sexuality. “The implication is that men can be trusted to make a rational decision of risk versus reward and women can’t,” she said.

The FDA has highlighted female sexual dysfunction as one of 20 priority areas of unmet medical need, and is obviously a major and genuine health problem that needs to be addressed.

Keep checking the Medical Specialists® NHS Pharmacy website for further updates about flibanserin or other female sexual dysfunction products that may become available in the future, and we already have an extension range of male impotence and premature ejaculation treatments, some of which were mentioned earlier.