One in 10 online pharmacies have seen their websites and social media presence cloned by criminals in order to trick patients into buying counterfeit weight loss medication, a shocking new survey by the National Pharmacy Association has found.
The NPA, which represents 6,000 pharmacies across Britain have accused social media giants of being 'asleep at the wheel', having not done enough to prevent the sale of counterfeit medication online.
This comes after two in five online pharmacies said they have seen patients unwittingly buy weight loss medication from unregulated providers in the last year.
The association has written to the government and regulators after it found numerous reports of open sales of unregulated and unregistered drugs pedalled as weight loss or beauty treatments on social media.
Pharmacy leaders sent evidence to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, calling on the Government for stronger action to keep patients safe online.
Although there are hundreds of regulated, safe online pharmacies in operation in the UK, the NPA are warning there of reports of a number of criminals posing as legitimate pharmacies to try and trick patients into buying counterfeit weight loss treatments.
Alarming reports to the NPA included a pharmacy who only discovered their online presence had been cloned after they were approached by a patient who had unwittingly bought a counterfeit Mounjaro pen from a site posing as their pharmacy for a quarter of the market price but had felt no health benefit from using it.
Another pharmacy had found a patient who had ordered a GLP-1 medicine from an illicit provider, including the pen being labelled for another patient and being sent to them with no needle.
A number of pharmacies reported to the NPA that they had had their social media presence cloned or had videos offering health advice stolen by accounts trying to sell counterfeit weight loss injections.
When pharmacies have reported these to social media companies, 96 per cent felt they have received an insufficient response whilst 92 per cent felt the Medicines Healthcare and Regulatory Agency (MHRA) had also not responded adequately.
In a number of cases seen by the NPA, the illicit provider had copied regulator logos, including the Care Quality Commission’s and the General Pharmaceutical Council’s (GPhC).
The NPA are calling for the government to put in place stronger safeguards for patients to help them identify a safe and regulated online pharmacy.
This includes the government introducing a new ‘.pharmacy’ domain name, similar to the ‘.gov’ domain for governmental bodies, to clearly identify regulated pharmacy websites.
They are also urging the government to reintroduce pre-Brexit rules that provided a list of all regulated online pharmacies as well as logos for webpages.
Pharmacies are calling for tougher enforcement action by the medicines regulator the MHRA, saying current efforts were a ‘drop in the ocean’ compared to the scale of the challenge.
Sehar Shahid, National Pharmacy Association board member, said:
“I know first hand how distressing it is to see criminals posing as regulated pharmacists to try and trick patients into buying counterfeit medicines.
“Medicines from unregulated providers may be faked, swapped for an alternative medicine or not meet the strict regulatory standards we have in the UK.
“Patients should be wary of any provider that is offering medicines at a price that is too good to be true and are not offering any consultations before prescribing.
“Social media companies have been asleep at the wheel and have not done enough to prevent a booming market for counterfeit medicines to flourish on their platforms.
“Although the MHRA works hard, their efforts are a drop in the ocean to tackle what is fast becoming a sophisticated criminal enterprise.
“We need tougher enforcement action and the government should put stronger safeguards in place to help patients clearly identify regulated providers online.”
