Patients were warned against purchasing medicine over the internet at a conference on counterfeit medicines in Dublin yesterday.
Stephen McMahon, chairman of the Irish Patients' Association, said counterfeit medicines posed a significant threat to public health as they could prolong an illness or even result in death.
He advised people not to purchase medicines over the internet and called on the sale of counterfeit drugs to be viewed as a serious crime, and not only because it infringes intellectual property rights.
The World Health Organisation estimates that 8-10 per cent of the global medicine supply chain consists of counterfeit products, and the global value of counterfeit medicines is estimated at some €35 billion worldwide.
Yesterday's Action Against Counterfeit Medicine conference was organised by the Irish Patients' Association in order to raise awareness and to encourage doctors, pharmacists and patients to be wary of counterfeit goods.
Dónal Ó Mathúna, a lecturer in healthcare ethics at Dublin City University and co-author of a report on counterfeit drugs, told the conference that in the developed world examples of counterfeit drugs that have been discovered include lifestyle drugs, such as Viagra, as well as cholesterol-lowering agents and steroids.
In 2003, 200,000 counterfeit bottles of the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor were found in the United States, while in 2004 a factory in London was found to be producing half a million fake valium, Viagra and steroid units per day.
In 2005, US customs seized dozens of packages of counterfeit Tamiflu pills, the antiviral drug used to treat avian flu.