Yahoo – AFP,
1 Sep 2014
A customs
officer shows counterfeit Viagra pills at the Paris Roissy airport,
on February
9, 2009 (AFP Photo/Martin Bureau)
|
The Hague
(AFP) - Police in several European countries on Monday arrested 12 people and
seized millions of euros in assets in a swoop on counterfeit Viagra dealers,
authorities said.
The
operation against fake, prescription-only medicines, "mainly erectile
dysfunction pills", involved police in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Hungary
and Britain, European justice organisation Eurojust said in a statement.
"Operations
resulted in the seizure of several million pills with an estimated value well
in excess of 10 million euros ($13.1 million), a large amount of cash and
several vehicles, including luxury models, and the freezing of more than 7.5
million euros in bank accounts and assets," Eurojust said.
The
counterfeit drugs were imported into the European Union from China and India
and "often contain incorrect dosages and ingredients".
According
to the European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines, 62 percent of drugs
bought on the Internet in 2011 were fake.
The Center
for Medicine in the Public Interest, a US non-profit medical research group,
estimates the traffic in fake medicine generated 55 billion euros globally in
2010, up 90 percent from 2005.
A study
conducted by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in 2010 showed that the European
market for fake drugs was worth around 10.5 billion euros.
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