Approximately 940,000 dosage units of falsified or illegal medicines were detained by the Health Products Regulatory Agency (HPRA) last year, according to newly released figures.
Just over one quarter of the medications seized were sedatives, totalling 247,737 units, followed by 207,220 units of anabolic steroids, representing 22 per cent of last year's detentions.
Just over 84,000 units of erectile dysfunction medications made up 9 per cent of the total units seized by the HPRA, while analgesics and stimulants accounted for 7 per cent and 5 per cent respectively.
The figures added that 639 websites, e-commerce listings and/or social media pages were amended at the request of the watchdog, or shutdown.
One prosecution was initiated relating to the importation or distribution of anabolic steroids, while seven voluntary formal cautions were also issued.
When you acquire medicines from unregulated sources, you simply have no idea what you are getting
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Publishing the results, the HPRA warned of the serious health dangers posed by sourcing prescription medicines online and from unauthorised sources.
The authority added that the importation of such medicines is illegal, and "consumers can have no guarantees about the safety or quality of prescription medicines they are seeking to buy outside of the regulated pharmacy setting".
"When you acquire medicines from unregulated sources, you simply have no idea what you are getting," the HPRA's director of compliance Grainne Power said.
"This isn’t merely about people wasting money on falsified or counterfeit products. It is also about the very real health dangers of significant side effects, of using a product without supervision, where there is no guarantee of what it contains, and of experiencing interactions with other medicines being taken.
Ms Power added that the monitoring of websites, online marketplace advertisements and social media is a key area of the HPRA's work, noting that the sources behind these sites "can be bogus, or worse, criminal networks".
The HPRA stressed that medications should only be obtained through recognised and regulated sources. "This way they know they are getting products that can be both relied upon to contain the right ingredients and that are tailored to their specific needs under the supervision of a doctor or pharmacist."
