06/27/2025
PLEASE BE CAREFUL WHEN BUYING VETERINARY MEDICATION ONLINE.
Health Canada issues Interpol Operations Alert over Fake Drug’s sold online - Via Global News June 26, 2025
“Health Canada has issued a public advisory warning Canadians about buying health products online after an international operation against counterfeit medicine saw thousands of packages stopped or seized before entering the country.
From Dec. 16, 2024, until May 16, 2025, Interpol led an operation across 90 countries, Operation Pangea XVII, that resulted in the seizure of 50.4 million doses of illicit pharmaceuticals worth more than $88 million, with 769 suspects arrested and 123 criminal groups dismantled worldwide, the largest seizures and arrests in the organization’s history.
“Fake and unapproved medications are a serious risk to public health. They can include dangerous or illegal ingredients potentially resulting in severe illness, or even death,” said David Caunter, director pro tempore of organized and emerging crime at Interpol.
In Canada’s case, Health Canada inspected 19,193 packages coming into the country, stopping 7,096 from entering and seizing another 539 at the border suspected of containing counterfeit or otherwise unauthorized health products worth an estimated $378,000.
About four per cent were veterinary and antiparasitic drugs.
