Buying medicines online : think you know what you are getting?
Date: 2015-01-29
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Internet, consumer protection, dangerous substance, electronic commerce, medicinal product, medicine, over-the-counter drug, public health

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BUYING MEDICINES ONLINE

THINK YOU KNOW
WHAT YOU ARE
GETTING?

False medicine can kill.
Use the logo. Stay safe.

HOW TO STAY SAFE

Illegal medicines, a growing problem*

September 2011

81 countries

2.4 million illicit and counterfeit 
pills confiscated

October 2012

100 countries

3.75 million illicit and counterfeit 
pills confiscated

June 2013

99 countries

10.1 million illicit and counterfeit 
pills confiscated 

What are illegal medicines?

Illegal medicines can be counterfeit or fake. Producers 
of counterfeit medicines try to make their products look 
exactly like the authentic version. However, because they 
enter the supply chain illegally you can’t be sure where 
or how they were manufactured. In fact, according to the 
World Health Organisation, those drugs are very likely to 
be falsified.

Fake medicines are a significant health risk:

 • they don’t contain the active ingredient that is needed 
to make the medicine work, or contain a wrong dose 
of it;

 • the substances that have been used to bulk up the 

product can be harmful, or even fatal.

*   Source:   http://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Pharmaceutical-crime/

Operations/Operation-Pangea

KNOW THE RISKS,  

Falsified Medicine – Know the Dangers

The medicine they had bought was fake and contained 
none of the cancer-fighting ingredient they needed. Many 
patients lost several months of their lives as a result.

The danger is real. In 2012, American doctors bought 
a cancer drug from an online supplier established in the 
UK. When patients began to have painful side effects, 
the doctors became suspicious.

USE THE SOLUTIONClick to verify
if this website
is operating
legally

All legally-operating pharmacies and retailers established 
in the EU will display the logo. You should always click  
the logo to ensure that the website is registered on one 
of the national lists of legally-operating pharmacies,  
or where the national law allows it, other retailers.  
That way you can be sure that you’re buying safe, 
effective medicine.

Even doctors can be fooled by fake medicine. The only 
way to stay safe is to buy from regulated pharmacies/
retailers.

How can you tell if your medicine is safe?

 
FAKE MEDICINES, 
REAL HEALTH RISKS

Fake medicines can lead to outbreaks of serious 
illnesses. For example, fake anti-tuberculosis drugs 
found in Europe were too weak to treat the disease. 
If ineffective antibiotics are used to treat tuberculosis, 
then this can lead to greater drug resistance and more 
widespread infection.

Click to verify
if this website
is operating
legally

Contamination is also widespread in fake medicines. 
Fakes seized in Europe have contained rat poison, lead 
paint and boric acid.

 
HOW TO USE THE LOGO

Each Member State of the EU has a national body that 
is responsible for maintaining a list of legally-operating 
online medicine retailers.

To stay safe when buying from a website, first, look 
for the logo. This clickable tool will appear on the 
websites of all EU pharmacies and medicine retailers 
that are registered with their national regulatory 
organisation. A legally-operating retailer is bound by 
law which ensures that the drugs sold are authentic.

Secondly, click on the logo which will take you 
to the website of the national regulatory authority 
corresponding to the flag displayed on the logo.  
Once there, check that the pharmacy is listed.  
Then continue with your purchase.

Each EU online pharmacy/retailer has to display the 
logo on its website. The flag used corresponds to the 
country where that pharmacy/retailer is established.

 ARE YOU SURE IT’S SAFE?  
 CLICK, CHECK, THEN CONTINUE. 

Click to verify
if this website
is operating
legally

 
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Click to verify
if this website
is operating
legally

Falsified medicines can be ineffective at best and deadly 
at worst. The only way to be sure that the medicine you 
buy online is safe and effective is to take these three 
steps:

 CLICK THE LOGO, CHECK THE LIST, THEN CONTINUE. 

The logo tool is there to help you. Use it every time you 
buy medicine online.

ISBN 978-92-79-40519-8 
doi:10.2772/3886

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