Irish market: The Irish Medicines Board (IMB) has said it does not believe counterfeit medicines are widely available on the Irish market, despite warnings that 10-25 per cent of medicines sold globally could be fake.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 8-10 per cent of the global medicine supply chain is counterfeit, rising to 25 per cent in some countries.
And as governments stockpile drugs to deal with a potential worldwide outbreak of bird flu, the pharmaceutical firm Roche has warned consumers not to buy drugs claiming to be its anti-viral drug Tamiflu online for fear it may be fake.
Graham Satchwell, an international expert on counterfeiting, told a symposium in Dublin that counterfeit medicines were "a real threat" to every person responsible for dispensing medicines.
Eshetu Wondemagegnehu of WHO told the event that counterfeiting was "a far more pronounced problem" in developing countries. The organisation has estimated the worldwide market in fake drugs to be worth more than $32 billion (€26.59 billion) a year.
The IMB said it could not give a definitive figure for the amount of potentially counterfeit medicines on the Irish market. It said no cases of counterfeit medicines or active substances had been identified to date as part of its national testing programme.
In a statement, it said: "Although international estimates may suggest that some 8-10 per cent of medicines could be counterfeit globally, the IMB would view that in an Irish context the incidence would not be on the same scale for the following reasons:
"In the authorised market there are tight controls and a low population base in Ireland which makes it less attractive for volume sales. In the unauthorised market it is more problematic and the IMB is looking at anabolic steroids and Viagra to determine the levels of counterfeit product and substandard products illegally available here."
But the IMB warned consumers who buy medicines through unofficial channels, including the internet and mail order, that they could be getting "non-genuine" products.
Last year the body seized more than 270,000 tablets, 506,005 capsules, 10,552 litres of liquids and 39kg of creams.
The ingredients contained in them included sildenafil citrate, the active ingredient in Viagra, and prescription-only herbal medicines.
The liquids were mostly anabolic steroids and the creams mostly corticosteroids.
Satchwell, a former detective superintendent in Britain and an expert on brand counterfeiting and anti-counterfeiting measures, told The Irish Times he was "absolutely certain" the problem of fake drugs here was more widespread than the IMB believed.
The IMB works with the Customs and Excise service to intercept these deliveries to Irish addresses. But Satchwell said he believed it was "impossible" to intercept all such imports.
"The threat to the consumer is obvious - it's a threat to the consumer's health and life. It's a business threat and a personal threat to the pharmacist. And to the manufacturer, of course, it's a threat in terms of lost sales.
"When you go to your pharmacist to buy drugs, look for the sort of packaging you recognise as being the original packaging," he said.
"If it's got some name you don't recognise on it, if the tablets are a different colour or if the print on the packaging is of poor quality, tell the pharmacist you don't want them.
"Thirdly, if you have any suspicions, report it to the Irish Medicines Board or your GP and to the pharmacist."