A Cork-based pharmacist has backed a warning issued by the Irish Pharmacists Union (IPU) as a \u201cworrying\u201d up-trend in the purchase of unregulated medicine online has emerged.<\/p>\n
A recent study, commissioned by the IPU, revealed that 32% of people now look up healthcare-related information online.<\/p>\n
Recently-published figures from the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) showed a 14% increase in the seizure of illegal medicines in the past year, with fake weight-loss drugs more than doubling, jumping from 568 units in 2023 to 1,582 in 2024.<\/p>\n
Caitriona O\u2019Riordan, owner of O\u2019Riordan\u2019s Pharmacy in Enniskeane, told The Echo that the warning issued by the IPU showcases how online advertising of medicine, specifically weight-loss drugs, can lead to individuals taking \u201cdangerous risks\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe purchase of fake weight-loss drugs has doubled from 2023 to 2024, it\u2019s a very worrying sign,\u201d said Ms O\u2019Riordan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work really hard at advertising to the public that you shouldn\u2019t buy drugs or medicines online, because it\u2019s illegal.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThey\u2019re likely to be counterfeit, there\u2019s no way of telling that they\u2019re genuine. They may not have the correct active ingredient, they may not be tested on humans, and they may not have any active ingredients at all.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cBest case scenario, it\u2019s going to be a complete waste of money, worst case scenario, it could be really dangerous,\u201d she added. \u201cThis is why your local pharmacist or GP is better positioned to know whether it is safe or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at something once online, you\u2019re bombarded with advertising, or people telling you how great something is \u2014 which is fine, becuase it might just provoke a conversation with your GP or pharmacist, but on the other hand, it might lead you to dubious websites where you can purchase the drug cheaply, and without a prescription.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are always people out there who are watching for loopholes, looking to make money \u2014 there is a black market for everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor people out there buying these drugs, I would say please don\u2019t take dangerous risks with your health \u2013 you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re getting, or who you\u2019re getting it from.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly qualified healthcare professionals can prescribe in Ireland and you should only get prescriptions supplied from your local pharmacy because we are highly regulated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Cork-based pharmacist has backed a warning issued by the Irish Pharmacists Union (IPU) as a \u201cworrying\u201d up-trend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[781,782,9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-5931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-cork-news","9":"tag-health-body","10":"tag-breaking-news","11":"tag-breakingnews","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-main-news","18":"tag-mainnews","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-world","23":"tag-world-news","24":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}