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Online sale of unlicensed COVID-19 products

A global operation has identified a disturbing trend in the online sale of products and medicines related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Operation Pangea XIII took place from 3-10 March 2020 and involved police, customs and health regulatory authorities from 90 countries. Counterfeit face masks and unauthorised antiviral medication were all seized under the operation.

Globally, 2000 online advertisements related to COVID-19 were found, and more than 34,000 unlicensed and fake products advertised as “corona spray”, “coronavirus medicines” or “coronaviruses packages" were seized.

Operation Pangea is an international initiative to target the illegal internet trade in medicines. It was instigated by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in April 2006 and started as the UK Internet Day of Action.

The annual operation is the largest internet-based enforcement action of its kind and was coordinated by INTERPOL, together with the World Customs Organisation (WCO), the Permanent Forum of International Pharmaceutical Crime (PFIPC), the Heads of Medicines Agencies Working Group of Enforcement Officers (WGEO), Europol and the Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI) and is supported by the Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies (CSIP) and private sector companies including LegitScript, Google, Mastercard, Visa, American Express and PayPal.

The majority of seizures made during the operation were medicines for erectile dysfunction, insomnia and pain.


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