A September 25th Washington Post article outlined the FDA’s most recent effort to curb the opioid crisis: going after more than 500 websites illegally selling counterfeit prescription drugs including opioids, antibiotics, and injectable epinephrine products. The act is part of a global operation called Pangea X, which is led by the international police organization Interpol. Pangea X is designed to seek out makers and distributors of illegal, counterfeit, and substandard medical products being sold on the Internet.
This year’s effort, which took place the third week of September, consisted of police, customs, and regulatory officials from 123 countries seizing millions of doses of dietary supplements, pain reduction pills, epilepsy medication, erectile dysfunction pills, and antipsychotic medications. The U.S. FDA was focused mainly on websites selling opioids that ship through the U.S. postal system to U.S. customers. The result was 13 warning letters sent to the owners of more than 400 websites and the seizure of roughly 100 domain names like buyhydrocodoneonline.com and buyklonopin.com.
