Millions of prescription-only drugs are being siphoned off from chemists and wholesalers to be sold illegally at a huge mark-up
Millions of prescription-only drugs are being siphoned off from chemists and wholesalers to be sold illegally at a huge mark-up.
Criminals have sold the treatments for up to £200million on the online black market, say regulators.
Drugs such as painkillers and Valium, costing around £1 wholesale, are being sold for £30 to £40 by criminals.
In the scam, wholesalers and pharmacists are bribed or tricked out of the medications which are usually for anxiety and insomnia.
Tens of millions of the drugs have been smuggled out of the supply chain. Just one operation is understood to have seized more than two million tablets. Since January 2014, criminality involving about 80 firms and pharmacies plus 54.5million tablets has been uncovered by the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency.
Alastair Jeffrey, head of enforcement at the MHRA, told an investigation by BBC Radio’s File on 4 programme: ‘They have a sales team, a distribution team. This is a huge business and there’s a massive criminal profit to be made.
‘A typical example would be a wholesaler dealer or a pharmacist ordering vast amounts of these particular types of medicines on behalf of the criminal who would sell them on the internet.
‘We have responsibility for regulating the supply chain and it is our priority to make sure that supply chain is secure.’
Criminals have sold the treatments for up to £200million on the online black market, say regulators. In the scam, wholesalers and pharmacists are bribed or tricked out of the medications which are usually for anxiety and insomnia (stock image)
Criminals typically obtained a genuine Wholesaler Dealers Agreement or faked one, then requested an account for medication by email. They paid in advance in cash then picked up the drugs from the premises.
In other cases, pharmacists were bribed to order drugs or offered over the wholesale cost to sell them to offenders, according to File on 4: A Deadly Prescription aired at 8pm tonight.
In 2017, the MHRA expanded its operations to 19 active inquiries and it has made 40-plus arrests. It said the scam has not affected legitimate supplies to the public.