Analysis: Potential harm caused by illegal medicines needs to be addressed

Seizures of large quantities of illegal medicines, such as that announced yesterday by the Irish Medicines Board, make for good photographs, but they hardly convey the amount of potential harm involved.

This story does. Mary (not her real name), a 35-year-old middle-management executive and mother, began taking the dietary supplement Oxy Elite pro on the recommendation of a friend who is a fitness instructor. Sourcing it online, she believed it was natural and would boost her energy levels.

She had to visit her doctor and was given treatment for viral hepatitis. Her condition didn’t improve and by the third week, she had developed severe jaundice. Admitted to hospital, she was diagnosed with liver failure. She was told that without a transplant she had a 10 per cent chance of survival.

She spent four to five weeks on high-dose antibiotics but then it was discovered the "natural product" she had been consuming had contributed to the reaction in her body. She recovered after a long period when her health was severely threatened and is almost back to work. Lucky to have survived

Not surprisingly, she feels she has been incredibly lucky to have survived and her advice to others is not to buy products online. But despite these scarifying stories, the online medicines business grows year on year. The number of drugs seized in Ireland in this year’s Operation Pangea is twice what was seized two years ago.

Research carried out for the IMB shows the main reasons people buy drugs online are price, privacy and convenience, but embarrassment is also likely to be a factor given the profile of the drugs involved. Weight-loss supplements, mood stabilisers and virility drugs are among the most popular choices on the online medicines market.

Illegal weight-loss products are of particular concern because many contain the active substance sibutramine, which can increase the risk of heart attack or stroke.

There may be fewer risks attached to ordering medicines from online pharmacies in the US and other Western countries, but this is still illegal and research tells us people ordering their drugs this way are more likely to suffer adverse events and end up in the emergency departments of hospitals. Online trading

Drug prices in Ireland remain high by international standards, so it’s not surprising that increasing numbers of consumers are filling their prescriptions while on holiday or across the border. Businesses which have sprung up offering to deliver prescriptions on payment of an annual fee appear to have avoided legal entanglements. It seems clear

the authorities will eventually have to remould the laws governing the sale of medicines to fit the new reality of online trading. In that way, while tolerating legitimate outlets to some degree, they would be better placed to go after rogue sellers of online drugs.