MOH receives 38 reports on sale of unregistered, fake drugs since MCO enforced

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the pandemic had somehow provided cyber criminals the opportunity to take advantage of high demand for health and personal care products.

He said throughout the Movement Control Order (MCO) period from March 18 to April 20, the Ministry of Health (MOH) had received 38 complaints regarding the sale of drugs and pharmaceutical products allegedly usable to treat COVID-19.

"A total of 182 links to websites selling unregistered drugs for COVID-19 treatment have been filtered and blocked, while 556 notices were issued to e-marketplace platforms to reduce the sale of unregistered products for the same purpose," he said in a statement here today.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said Malaysia was involved in the Pangea XIII Operation, an international collective action against the sale of illegal drugs and medical products from March 3 to 10.

The operation was coordinated by the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) with the involvement of police, customs and health authorities from 90 countries.

In this international operation, face masks and hand sanitizer that did not meet the safety standards, as well as illegal antivirus and dangerous drugs worth more than USD14 million were seized, while 2,000 online links advertising COVID-19 related items were discovered.

This operation saw an 18 percent increase in illegal antiviral drug seizures, and more than 100 percent increase in unauthorised hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine seizures, which was also associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Dr Noor Hisham, during the operation in Malaysia, 347 personal websites, 360 accounts on social sites and 585 links on e-marketplace platforms, which were found to be selling pharmaceutical products that violated the law, had been monitored, investigated and acted upon.

"A total of 853 parcels were inspected. Seventy-nine of them were found to contain unregistered pharmaceutical products and have been seized.

"Among the top products detected and seized were unnotified cosmetics and health product, which mostly not registered with the MOH," he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said, during the operation, the Malaysian team had also seized 23,278 illegal pharmaceutical products worth RM633,455.60 in the raids on 50 unlicensed premises selling the products online.

The Pangea Operation in Malaysia was mounted with the cooperation of the MOH, Customs Department, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, Pos Malaysia, courier service companies and e-marketplace platforms.