The Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) has said it is concerned at a 58 per cent increase in the number of illegal medicines detained last year. More than 1.6 million units of falsified or illegal medicines were detained in 2020, with the most significant categories of illegal products being sedatives (36 per cent), erectile dysfunction medicines (30 per cent), analgesics (9 per cent) and anabolic steroids (6 per cent). There were 370,000 erectile dysfunction tablets detained in one seizure alone. The HPRA said there were 56,876 units of Covid-19 medicines detained, “the majority of which related to traditional Chinese medicine not approved or authorised for use in Ireland”. Dr Lorraine Nolan, chief executive of the HPRA, said the year-on-year increase in illicit medicines being detected and detained is “very concerning”.

Source: The Irish Times June 08, 2021 18:13 UTC