US FDA Finds Online Sales Canadian Drugs Originating From Costa Rica, Israel & India
States Food and Drugs Administration (US FDA) has found that nearly half of the imported drugs the US FDA intercepted from selected countries including Costa Rica were shipped to fill online orders that consumers believed they were placing with Canadian pharmacies.

The US FDA has stated that of the drugs being promoted as ‘Canadian’ 85 per cent actually came from 27 countries around the globe. A number of these products also were found to be counterfeit.

The US FDA operations were carried out in three major US airports where all mail parcels suspected of containing pharmaceuticals sent from four countries - India, Israel, Costa Rica, and Vanuatu were examined. Out of nearly 4,000 parcels examined, almost 1,700 or about 43% had been ordered from ‘Canadian’ internet pharmacies and were represented as being of Canadian origin, the US FDA has stated.

Only 15% of the Canadian drugs in the parcels examined actually originated from Canada. The remaining 85% were manufactured in 27 different countries. In addition to having been falsely promoted as being of Canadian origin, many of these drugs were not adequately labelled in English to help assure safe and effective use, noted the US FDA.

The US FDA has warned of appropriate action to keep the counterfeit products out of the US drug supply and pursue actions against those responsible for attempting to defraud the American public.

"This operation suggests that drugs ordered from so-called 'Canadian' internet sites are not drugs of known safety and efficacy," said Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, acting commissioner, US FDA.

These results make clear there are internet sites that claim to be Canadian that, in fact, are peddling drugs of dubious origin, safety, and efficacy. These 'bait and switch' tactics-offering patients one thing and then providing the other are misleading patients and are potentially harmful to the public health, the US FDA stated.