By the end of the first half of this year, Swissmedic, Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products, received reports on 992 suspicious, potentially illegal imports of medicinal products from the Federal Customs Authorities. This represents an increase of 75% compared with the first six months of 2009. Most cases concerned prescription-only medicines. Nearly half of all shipments came from India (2009: 38%).

Countries of origin

The medicinal products seized by Swiss customs came from the following countries:

India                                                                                                                 45%

Western Europe (Germany, UK, Greece, etc.)                                              35%
Asia, without India (Thailand, China, Pakistan, etc.)                                      6%
Tropical island states (Vanuatu, Seychelles)                                                 3%
Eastern Europe                                                                                                3%

Products
The following product categories were those most frequently seized:
Erectile stimulants                                                                                          31%
Slimming products                                                                                          26%
Prescription-only hair growth products                                                           6%
Muscle-building products                                                                                5%
Potentially addictive medicines, sleeping pills                                                5%

Warning regarding LiDa Daidaihua

The proportion of slimming products is particularly worrying because of a sharp rise in orders of the slimming product LiDa Daidaihua. Compared with last year, illegal imports of this product have risen from 14% to 26%. As early as February of this year, Swissmedic issued a warning about taking this product, since it contains a non-declared, prescription-only active substance: Sibutramine.

Recently, as a result of an unfavourable risk / benefit ratio, authorised medicines containing Sibutramine are no longer permitted on the market in Switzerland and in the EU: notably because of possible heart and circulatory complications. The most frequent side effects of Sibutramine also include headaches, tachycardia (racing heart), increased blood pressure, constipation, and insomnia.

LiDa Daidaihua is advertised on websites that provide misleading and false information about it: that it is a 100% natural, purely herbal substance; that it can be delivered without encountering any problems with customs; that the supplier is a legal mail order pharmacy; and that the costs will be refunded in the case of non-delivery.
All these statements are untrue.

Swissmedics findings concerning these statements are the following:

Each capsule of LiDa Daidaihua contains an excessive amount of the active substance Sibutramine, corresponding to around 150% of the maximum daily dose. Taking this substance in such quantities, without medical supervision, represents a serious danger to the consumer's health.
Contrary to the suppliers' claims, the active substance in the product has neither been reduced nor eliminated, as regular analysis in the Swissmedic laboratory has shown.
All shipments intercepted by customs entail proceedings by Swissmedic: usually the destruction of the product and the processing costs of the case being borne by the recipient.
Behind the many websites offering LiDa Daidaihua and other falsified products containing chemical active substances (Perfect Slim, Lose Weight Coffee and various erectile stimulants) are not pharmacists but criminal organisations.
From correspondence with recipients of the products in Switzerland, Swissmedic is aware that the suppliers do not refund costs in the case of non-delivery.

Swissmedic is therefore issuing an urgent warning regarding ordering and taking medicines obtained over the Internet. They are often particularly dangerous: even some products that are claimed to be purely natural are falsified, in that they also contain synthetic substances.

Once again, increasing imports of illegal medicinal products – dangerous slimming products