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BANGKOK (AP) — Nearly all of the world’s 35,000 online pharmacies are operated illegally, and consumers who use them risk obtaining ineffective or dangerous medications, according to the U.S. Trade Representative’s annual report on “disreputable markets.” The report also singled out 19 countries due to concerns about counterfeit or pirated products.
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The report also named about three dozen online retailers, many in China or elsewhere in Asia, who were allegedly involved in selling counterfeit products or other illegal activities.
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The report says that 96% of online pharmacies are violating the law, and many of them operate without a license and sell medicines without prescriptions and safety warnings.
Their websites often appear to be legitimate e-commerce platforms, and often contain false claims that they are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the report released on Wednesday said. The US Food and Drug Administration and Drug Enforcement Administration have issued warnings about the risks of purchasing prescription drugs from these sources.
She cited a survey by the Global Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies, which found that nearly one in four Americans who used online pharmacies reported encountering substandard, counterfeit or harmful medications.
Last year, federal prosecutors reported that a network of illegal drug sellers, based in the United States, the Dominican Republic and India, packaged potentially deadly synthetic opioids into pills disguised as common prescription drugs and sold millions of them through fake online pharmacies. , federal prosecutors said Monday. . The indictment stated that at least nine people died of drug poisoning between August 2023 and June 2024 after taking the counterfeit pills.
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Aside from the risks of using medications that may contain inactive ingredients or that can cause allergic reactions, medications are sometimes made in unsanitary conditions, said the report, which did not provide annual statistics of those who may have died or been harmed.
The USTR’s annual report cited examples from within the United States, but also mentioned the risks of imported ingredients including fentanyl from China. Many illicit online pharmacies are located outside the United States
The Notorious Markets List praised progress made in combating counterfeit and pirated goods.
In one case, US authorities, industry groups, and police cooperated to shut down a Vietnam-based piracy network, Fmovies, and other related piracy websites, in July and August.
The report said that the largest pirated movie site in the world at the time attracted more than 6.7 billion visits in the period from January 2023 to June 2024.
In another case linked to Vietnam, two people running a pirate TV platform BestBuyIPTV were convicted and ordered to pay fines and have their property confiscated.
The report also pointed to crackdowns on online piracy in Brazil and the United Kingdom and raids on sellers of counterfeit wallets, clothes and shoes in Kuwait.
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But problems remain with Internet blockers that thwart efforts to restrict piracy of movies and other content and so-called “bulletproof” ISPs, or ISPs, that promise people who use them a leeway to use piracy sites, the report said.
One ISP is Avito, a Russia-based advertising platform that allegedly allows sellers to advertise counterfeit products.
Baidu Wangpan, a cloud storage service affiliated with China’s largest search engine provider Baidu, has been named for allegedly failing to enforce copyright protection or being slow to act on it.
The report also pointed to social commerce site Pinduoduo and to Douyin Mall, a Chinese online platform owned by Tiktok owner ByteDance. She said shopping platforms had sought to strengthen protection but still hosted many counterfeit goods.
It also named Shopee, a Singapore-based online and mobile e-commerce site, saying that some country-focused platforms serving Southeast Asia and South America have better anti-piracy records than others.
IndiaMART, a large B2B marketplace in India, still offers a large number of counterfeit products, she said.
While a significant proportion of intellectual property theft has moved online, the report also highlighted real-world locations known for selling counterfeit products, including markets in Turkey, bazaars in the United Arab Emirates and Saigon Square Shopping Mall in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
The report said that MBK Center in Bangkok, a huge mall with about 2,000 stores, has cracked down on counterfeiting, although such products can still be found there.
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