Potentially deadly haul of fake impotence drugs seized in Scunthorpe

Yesterday the The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) confirmed that over 320,000 doses of unlicensed erectile dysfunction medicines have been seized by their enforcement officers.

The huge quantity of potentially fatal unlicensed impotence drugs came about following raids at addresses across Scunthorpe yesterday, carried out by MHRA officers.

The illegal and possibly highly dangerous haul of unlicensed drugs have a reported estimated street value of over £990,000.

Alastair Jeffrey, MHRA Head of Enforcement, commented: “Selling unlicensed medicines is illegal and poses a serious health hazard.

“Unlicensed medicines can be dangerous as they may contain impurities, incorrect ingredients, and there is no way of knowing if they are manufactured to acceptable standards of quality and safety.
“Criminals involved in the illegal supply of medical products aren’t interested in your health – they are only interested in your money.

“Be careful buying medicines online – only buy from a site that is registered with MHRA and displays the new EU common logo.

“MHRA will continue to track down and prosecute those who put the public’s health at risk.”
Here at Medical Specialists® Pharmacy, we only supply genuine branded medication such as Pfizer Viagra. Moreover, our pharmacy will only dispense medication after a patient has undergone a consultation with one of our fully registered doctors, who will make sure the medication is both right and safe for the patient – or if a private prescription is posted in, issued by another GP. In addition to that, we are fully registered with the National Pharmacy Association and the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC).

With thousands of illegal fake online pharmacy websites still plaguing the internet, offering ‘discounted’ medicines with ridiculous (and illegal) deals on prescription drugs – i.e. ‘buy one get one free’ – it can be difficult to know who to trust or where to buy from.

On a daily basis Medical Specialists® speak to concerned patients. With this in mind, here are some warnings signs and red flags when trying to determine if an online pharmacy is legitimate and who they say they are:

. No requirement of a doctors’ consultation for prescription medication.

. Long delivery times, sometimes up to several weeks. This is due to the drug being imported from a foreign country before it gets to you.

. The price of the medication is a lot cheaper than what would be expected, sometimes by as much as 70%.

. The website does not list any contact details, e.g. a telephone and fax number, email address, company address or details of its pharmacists, doctors, etc.

. The company registration and VAT number should both be clearly stated on the website. Both of these are a legal requirement.

. A registered Pharmacy such as Medical Specialists® Pharmacy will display a clearly visible and clickable GPhC green cross logo on their website, together with its pharmacy number. This number can be checked on the GPhC pharmacy register to see if the pharmacy exists, as follows:

. As an extra level of security, reassurance and peace of mind for the consumer, from 2015, legimate pharmacies had to display the EU common logo on every page of the website where selling to a patient occurs. This helps members of the public to identify websites that can legally sell medicines. Like the GPhC logo, the EU common logo is clickable, but the hyperlink will direct people to the that pharmacy’s listing on the MHRA’s list of registered online pharmacies and should state that the pharmacy has been approved by the MHRA, as follows:

Viagra gang who netted £10 million are given massive prison sentences

A counter drug gang consisting of twelve people managed to rake in a staggering fortune in excess of £10 million, a court heard earlier this week.

Under the guise of a nationwide mail-order fishing tackle company, the gang – which comprised of six people alone from northern Lincolnshire – flogged suspiciously low priced male impotence pills, apparently offering them either over the internet or selling them in person.

The phony pills could have resulted in “catastrophic damage” to the public due to the fact that fake Viagra tablets have previously been found to contain a variety of toxic substances such as acid, brick dust and road paint, Judge Charles Wide QC told the Old Bailey as he sentenced the gang.

A former married couple seemed to be the pioneers behind the operation, with a northern branch ran by the Thailand-based husband and his wife in control of the daily UK operation. Members of their family were also hired to successfully continue the illicit dealings.

A number of ‘front’ companies were formed that claimed to be selling items such as jewellery, fishing tackle and cosmetics in order to take-in electronic transactions, and the crooks then laundered the money through over 100 different bank accounts. In total, the exact amount of laundered money or that obtained by fraudulent means was undetermined, but estimates pit the proceeds at more than a staggering £10 million – raking in as much as £60,000 each week.

Prosecutor Gillian Jones told the Old Bailey: “This case is not about wanting to distribute good medicines cheaply, but rather the motivation was greed, with an utter disregard for patient safety.”
The court was told that the illegal dealings spanned for eight years from 2004, with those behind the scam carrying on even after being arrested on September 20, 2011. The arrests came after an investigation by the drugs regulatory body, MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory).
“The medicines that were seized which were purported to be Viagra and Valium, in fact, turned out to be counterfeit,” said Miss Jones.

“This was big business. The proceeds of the supply of these medicines, via websites which have been traced to various merchant facilities, is in excess of £10 million – that is not the real figure. Not all bank accounts have been identified.”

The money was transferred into bank accounts ran by those either directly involved in the conspiracy or members of their family, and was then either withdrawn in cash or put back into the business to keep it running.

Miss Jones continued: “They purported to be trading fishing tackle, cosmetics or jewellery, but they were just a front to hide the real merchandise which was unlicensed medicines. As demand grew, the customer database widened to countries including Sweden, France and Germany.”

After the banks began raising questions about transactions going through the accounts, the gang then craftily opened accounts offshore in Belize and Panama.

Last Monday, the crooks paid the penalty however for tricking the public by selling the dangerous fake erectile dysfunction drugs, and drugs for other apparent purposes.

A 42-year-old man from Brighton was given a massive 17-year prison sentence for being the main man in the scam and found guilty of offshore money laundering. The judge also jailed a 45-year-old man from Crayford, Kent, to four years, describing him as the middle man of the operation. He was found guilty of money laundering, conspiracy and selling or distributing counterfeit goods. Other members of the gang were also slapped with sentences totalling several years between them, proving that crime doesn’t pay and will catch up with everybody eventually.

Drug mailing scam lands Surrey man with 44 months in prison

Yet another counterfeiter has deservedly been imprisoned after putting lives at risk from selling fraudulent, dangerous drugs. The guilty party is a Portuguese national who has received a prison sentence of almost four years (44 months in total) following him being caught operating an illegal internet drug mailing business.

Mahomed Bacai, aged 38, of Addlestone, Surrey, conceded that he was guilty of five offences including forgery, possession of false identity documents and conspiracy to supply class C drugs, prescription-only medicines and medicines not on the General Sales List.  Bacai received his sentence on 22 February at Guildford Crown Court.

His arrest came about after the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) began its own investigation in January 2011 upon learning of seizures of medicines by the UK Border Agency in Coventry.

The governmental agency has stated that Bacai’s illicit dealings saw him hiring mailboxes using false paperwork and fictitious names. By using all this, he would acquire parcels from overseas suppliers based in India and China. He re-packed the parcels at his home before shipping them off to his international customer base.

In June 2011 MHRA officers conducted a raid of his house in Addlestone and recovered approximately £1.6m ($2.4m) worth of unlicensed medicines that comprised of ‘vast amounts of counterfeit and unlicensed erectile dysfunction medicines’ stored in what the MHRA described as ‘unsanitary conditions, including a garden shed’. In addition, officers also found powerful Class C drugs such as the opiate Tramadol, tranquiliser drug Diazepam and vials of testosterone.

More investigations into Bacai’s activities resulted in officers being able to intercept an incredible £125,000 worth of counterfeit medicines that were due to arrive at his home address and he was promptly arrested.

Nimo Ahmed, MHRA Acting Head of Enforcement said: “We are committed to pursuing those involved in the illicit supply of medicines and taking action to ensure that public health is protected. Prescription-only medicines and controlled substances such as Tramadol and Diazepam are potent substances. They can cause serious harm if not taken under the supervision of a doctor or other appropriate healthcare professional and obtained through a registered pharmacy. We urge people to only take prescription-only medicines after an appropriate consultation with their GP. They are best equipped to consider your medical history, the risk and benefits of drugs and any possible interactions with other medicines you’re taking.”

Medical Specialists Pharmacy are fully aware that there are thousands of illegal websites plaguing the internet that offer ‘discounted’ and ‘genuine’ medicines. We speak to patients on a daily basis who are clearly very reluctant to obtain medicines online. With this in mind, here are some important factors to be alert of when browsing through different websites:

. Long delivery times, sometimes up to several weeks. This is due to the drug being imported from a foreign country before it gets to you.
. For erectile dysfunction medication, a phony website could state ‘generic Viagra’ or ‘generic sildenafil citrate’. There is no such thing as generic Viagra!
. The price of the medication is a lot cheaper than usual, sometimes by as much as 70%.
. The website does not list any contact details, e.g. a telephone and fax number, company address, pharmacists, doctors, etc.
. A registered Pharmacy such as Medical Specialists Pharmacy will have the GPhC green cross logo together with its Pharmacy number. This number can be checked to see if it does actually exist.
. The company registration and VAT number should both be clearly stated on the website. Both of these are a legal requirement.

U.S. Viagra and Cialis counterfeiter gets two years in prison

Awni Shauaib Zayyad, 56, of Wilson, N.C. has been handed a two year prison sentence in relation to five federal offenses regarding the possession and sale of counterfeit erectile dysfunction (ED) Viagra and Cialis pills in the Charlotte area. When sentencing Zayyad, Chief U.S. District Judge Robert J. Conrad Jr also stated that he must serve two years under court supervision after his release from prison and pay $10,000 fine and $500 special assessment fee.

Zayyad was first apprehended by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police on U.S. investigators were made aware of Zayyad’s illegal activities back in June 2010 after he sold over 500 counterfeit Viagra tablets to a Charlotte convenience store where police were already undergoing surveillance for similar dealings.

Zayyad’s residence was subsequently placed under surveillance before investigators proceeded to follow him on a four hour drive to Charlotte on Aug. 23 2010 where he was about to sell more dangerous fake pills to the same convenience store. Unfortunately for Zayyad, law enforcement agents stopped him in Mecklenburg County before he arrived. Inside the vehicle which was registered to his wife, Zayyad was found to be in possession of 500 fake Viagra pills and over 200 fake Cialis pills.

In court it was explained that Zayyad had possessed and/or distributed in excess of 2,000 counterfeit Viagra pills and nearly 400 counterfeit Cialis pills whilst he was being investigated in 2010 by the authorities. The counterfeit fake pills he possessed were actually found to contain active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) of the ED medications, though in varying and incorrect strengths and with unknown non-API additives.

It was established that the fake erectile dysfunction pills had an accumulated wholesale value of more than $40,000.  As explained many times by Medical Specialists Pharmacy, the court was also made fully aware of the dangers of congesting counterfeit pills to the health of those who take them especially when counterfeit prescription medications contain active ingredients of unknown strength, extra added substances and produced in unknown, untraceable and often unhygienic disgusting premises.

He was eventually found guilty by a jury in February 2012 of numerous offenses including: one count of conspiracy to traffic counterfeit prescription medications bearing counterfeit trademarks, two counts of trafficking counterfeit prescriptions bearing counterfeit trademarks and two counts of selling and holding for sale counterfeit prescription medications with intent to defraud and mislead.
Demonstrating the seriousness of dealing with counterfeit medications, Zayyad must now self-report to the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. There are no chances of parole with a federal sentence.

If you are a male suffering with erectile dysfunction, safety and peace of mind is assured by obtaining genuine erectile dysfunction medication such as Pfizer’s Viagra from a reputable and trusted source such as Medical Specialists Pharmacy. We are fully registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and also a member of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA). Our team of Doctors are registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) and our Pharmacists are registered with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB).

Viagra and other medications for male impotence such as Cialis or Levitra are obtainable with or without a prescription. If you do not have a prescription, you can undergo a private and confidential online consultation with one of our Doctors and if suitable, they will write you a prescription. This is passed to our in-house Pharmacists, and dispensed and dispatched to you at your home, your place of work, or where ever you choose, discreetly within 24 hours.

Swiss Professor creates a basic machine to detect fake drugs

Associate professor Serge Rudaz of Geneva University’s School of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Switzerland may have helped to ease the worldwide problem of dangerous counterfeit drugs after developing an inexpensive machine that can identify diminished or fake medicines.

Keen readers of the Medical Specialists news area will already be aware of the huge risks associated with consuming a counterfeited drug and it is an issue we feel passionate about. Forbes estimated that the global sales of counterfeit drugs hit the $200 billion mark in late 2012, so clearly there is only one incentive for the criminals involved – to make money. This is regardless of the health of those who ingest the cheaply-produced drugs that can be comprised of a whole range of lethal ingredients such as paint, chalk, printer ink, brick dust and even arsenic.

Demonstrating how the problem has spread worldwide, in 2012 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seized a batch of the prescription-only cancer medicine Avastin which turned out to be fakes and had been already been dispersed across America – despite its relatively protected domestic drug supply chain. It was discovered that the phony Avastin had been shipped to the U.S. from the United Kingdom.

According to the World Health Organization, around 10% of medicines circulating in the world are fakes, with even much higher figures for certain African countries  – areas where drugs such as antibiotics, analgesics, steroids, malaria pills, or antihistamines are in such high demand and sometimes needed to prevent death. In more developed nations it is usual for the most copied drugs to be patented ones such as Viagra.

Therefore Professor Rudaz has decided to fight the huge problem of counterfeit drugs and has manufactured a relatively cheap machine for labs to utilise to pick out the fakes. The machine merely costs $10,000 (£6,595.44) – around a tenth of what other commercial equipment costs. Because of this cost factor, Rudaz and his organisation offer the technology free-of-charge and have so far donated to labs in Senegal, Mali, Cambodia, and D.R. Congo, with machines set to go to Burkina Faso, Madagascar, and Rwanda in the near future.

The machine uses a method called capillary electrophoresis – a century-old technique never previously exercised in counterfeit drug detection. Technicians simply fill a thin tube with water and tiny measure of solvent, administer a high voltage and then diluted drug moves underneath the electric field. The validity is ascertained by how fast it travels.

Rudaz asked manufacturers if they wanted to assist in developing the design but they all replied they couldn’t envisage it having a market. He says: “Because the machine uses very little solvent, it is like a low-cost printer where the ink is also low cost. You have no business.”

Rudaz acknowledges that there is a huge battle to beat the counterfeiters with ‘drug mafias’ involved in the smuggling of drugs, and that it would be almost impossible to completely eradicate it. He says: “You won’t solve counterfeits completely. We detect some drugs, but the problem remains. The problem of counterfeits is not only a problem of analytics. It is also a problem of economics and society which is too big for me.”

You do not need to worry about dangerous fakes when dealing with Medical Specialists Pharmacy. Established in 1994 and becoming the UK’s first legal online clinic in 2001, we are fully registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and also a member of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA). Our team of Doctors are registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) and our Pharmacists are registered with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB).

£117 million of fake drugs are seized during police raids

A country-wide operation in China that involved approximately 18,000 police officers has culminated in the arrest of almost 2,000 people and the seizing of an incredible 1.16bn Yuan ($182m; £117m) of fake medicines in just the past month alone. The arrests were made in an attempt to clean up a country which is widely known for its high volume of bogus products, including a very prosperous nationwide counterfeit drugs market.

As well as millions of dollars’ worth of fake drugs being seized, the police raids in China resulted in the destruction of about 1,100 production facilities according to the Chinese public security minister who spoke yesterday, and confirmed that the arrests actually occurred last month.

The released statement said that some of the counterfeit drugs officials had seized included convincing look-a-likes that were apparently to treat a wide range of conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, skin problems, cancer and rabies. In an attempt to pass the dangerous drugs off as ‘genuine’, the crafty criminals went to extreme measures such as paying to advertise the goods on the internet, newspapers and on television. It has been reported that some of the problems the fakes had caused included serious issues such as heart failure, liver damage and kidney damage.

China is one of the globe’s biggest producers of fake medicines and authorities now need to devise new ways to stop the problem for good. Medical Specialists Pharmacy are strong campaigners for the introduction of much tougher legislation for anybody found guilty of dealing with counterfeit medicines. After all, it is people’s lives at stake when ingesting potentially toxic chemicals that have been poorly produced in a dirty, unhygienic warehouse.

For instance, back in 2008 Chinese drug makers used contaminated ingredients to produce the blood thinning medication ‘Heparin’, resulting in the tragic death of 80 people and many hundreds more in the US had allergic reactions due to the harmful batch. This happened as worryingly some of the goods had been exported overseas. Indeed, from the statement released yesterday, it was uncertain if last month’s apprehended haul were actually meant for Chinese use or distribution to overseas countries.

The ministry are understandably pleased with the latest arrests, with there now being fewer products flooding the market and putting patients lives at risk. However, they have urged for some caution and said, “The crime of making drugs is still far from eradicated, and criminals are coming up with new schemes, becoming craftier and better able to deceive it.” They have further advised everybody to only purchase and obtain their medications from reputable pharmacies and hospitals. Some important things to be aware of, especially when browsing through different websites online, include:

. Long delivery times, sometimes up to several weeks. This is due to the drug being imported from a foreign country before it gets to you.
 . For erectile dysfunction medication, phony website could state ‘generic Viagra’ or ‘generic sildenafil citrate’. There is no such thing as generic Viagra!
. The price of the medication is a lot cheaper than usual, sometimes by as much as 70%.
. The website does not list any contact details, e.g. a telephone and fax number, company address, pharmacists, doctors, etc.
. A registered Pharmacy such as Medical Specialists Pharmacy will have the GPhC green cross logo together with its Pharmacy number. This number can be checked to see if it does actually exist.
. The company registration and VAT number should both be clearly stated on the website. Both of these are a legal requirement.

The War on fake Erectile Dysfunction drugs continues as more pills are seized

The global crackdown on counterfeit drugs has continued this week after five men were arrested in South Africa on Tuesday. KwaZulu-Natal police officers confirmed the news on Wednesday and stated that the men were possessing counterfeit Viagra with an approximate value of R800,000 (about £61,830). Colonel Jay Naicker, from the KwaZulu-Natal police force, said the arrests were carried out after police had undergone thorough investigations about the sales of illegal Viagra copies such as Kamagra, Zerenga, Femalegra and Vigora. All five men were confirmed to be aged between 23 and 35 and are will be scheduled for court dates.

The men can expect heavy sentences to be handed down to them, as legal systems all over the world look to seriously clamp down on the dealings of counterfeit medicines. Back in May, Medical Specialists Pharmacy reported how Simon Hickman of Greater Manchester, was being forced to repay a staggering £14.4 million pounds made from selling unlicensed erectile dysfunction medication over the internet, and may face a possible 10 years in prison. Some of the signs to look out for when you happen to click onto an illegally ran ‘online pharmacy’ like Hickman’s, we have covered in great depth here and here.

Medical Specialists Pharmacy are not the only group who are concerned about the ever-growing number of counterfeit medicines making their way onto the internet via illegal websites and the health risks that these drugs can pose. On Tuesday, a team of Urologists spoke at a press conference in Seoul, South Korea, and further stressed just how dangerous counterfeit erectile dysfunction pills can be to the men who take them. They even claimed that 71.5% of those who are taking the illegal drugs, do not understand the potential side effects that they may incur from them.

The Urologists were from The Korean Society for Sexual Medicine and Andrology. They warned that fake impotence drugs can cause such problems like headaches, poor visibility, heart acceleration and in more extreme scenarios, arrhythmia could occur and actually endanger life. These fake pills are generally often easy to spot as they are sold incredibly cheaper than licensed medications to treat erectile dysfunction such as Pfizer’s Viagra and Eli Lily’s Cialis, and when purchased they do not require any kind of doctors consultation or prescription.

Sohn Hwan-Cheol, speaking at the conference, commented on the issue, “Counterfeits are difficult to distinguish because their colours and shapes are similar to the original drugs. Therefore, it is even harder to trace the origin of those drugs. But we believe many of them are produced in unhygienic and poor environments.” The doctors from the society have even launched a website to help men understand the differences between genuine and counterfeit erectile dysfunction drugs.