The Irish Medicines Board is reassuring patients who take two leading blood-thinning tablets, following reports that 19 deaths have been linked to the drugs.

Two women who imported thousands of banned and dangerous slimming tablets they unlawfully sold online have been spared jail sentences.

Couples struggling to conceive naturally but unable to afford IVF can try a cheaper alternative by taking part in a three-month study using a nutritional supplement which claims to boost fertility.

Serious surgery blunders could be avoided if the Government overhauled cosmetic surgery laws, according to the president of the Irish Association of Plastic Surgeons.

The pharmacy regulator has started an inquiry into a Dublin chemist that refused to give an emergency adrenaline pen to a mother whose 14-year-old daughter died minutes later on the street because of a nut allergy.

The US Food and Drug Administration is looking into whether morning-after contraceptive pills fail to work in women over a certain weight and will decide whether to add a warning to the drug’s label.

A convicted brothel-keeper has been fined €1,500 and given a suspended sentence for having dangerous unregistered Viagra-like pills on sale at a sex shop in Dublin.

A number of commonly used medications have been withdrawn from pharmacies over concerns at an Indian manufacturing facility.

A number of medicines available to patients in Ireland are due to be recalled in the coming days over concerns at a manufacturing plant in India.

Medical devices firms will be forced to pay significant pre-market “risk assessment” charges if they want to sell their products under new patient safety laws.

The Irish Medicines Board has warned that people are putting their lives in danger by taking illegal and fake medicines after it emerged there had been a 60% rise in seizures of sedatives last year.

The Irish Medicines Board has revealed that more than three quarters of a million dosages of fake or illegal medicines were confiscated last year by customs’ officers after they were purchased online or via mail order.

The State’s drug regulation body was alerted about a blood-testing kit error two months before a public notice was issued this week.

A Dublin man has appeared in court accused of supplying Viagra from his home by mail order.

The high cost of legitimate drugs is forcing a record number of people to gamble with their lives by seeking out cheaper black market medications online.

A generic drug law now in force could radically change the way pharmaceutical prices are set in Ireland, a report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) states.

The Irish Cancer Society says it cannot recommend electronic cigarettes as an alternative to tobacco until they are regulated in Ireland.

Unregistered Viagra-like pills which carry serious health risks were on sale at a sex shop, a court heard.

There is far greater awareness and acceptance of generic drugs now, with more than three quarters of Irish people willing to accept a cheaper, unbranded medicine, it has emerged.

Pharmacists will be legally obliged to substitute branded medicines with cheaper, generic drugs within months.

A Government pledge to check that cosmetics being sold in Ireland comply with an international animal testing ban has been welcomed by animal rights groups.

The Irish Medicines Board (IMB) says it is “aware” of health concerns in Canada linking cancer treatment drug Avastin and a flesh-eating virus.

The operators of a Dublin sex shop are being prosecuted for selling a Viagra-like anti-impotence drug without authorisation.

Buying prescription drugs online can seriously damage your health and in some instances lead to death, says Rita de Brun

The Government has sought to reassure epilepsy patients legislation aimed at bringing down the cost of drugs will not place their health at increased risk.

MENINGITIS. It’s a word that scares parents.

AS THOUSANDS of anti-choice protesters gathered for a vigil in Dublin last week, a woman in the west of Ireland was anxiously awaiting the illegal delivery of abortifacient drugs.

Is there any point in buying non-prescription remedies? asks John Hearne

Taking the pill to ward off dementia is not advised, says Arlene Harris.

Screening of embryos for genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis (CF) is being made available in fertility clinics in Cork and Dublin for the first time — with a Dublin clinic offering screening for Down’s syndrome.

A typhoid vaccine recalled in Britain because of concerns about its effectiveness has remained on the Irish market.

Adults can get up to five colds, and children as many as ten, especially during the winter months. A new study on a herbal remedy offers some hope for sufferers.

The scale of the online illegal medicines market emerged yesterday after more than 120,000 fake tablets and capsules were seized in just one week.

More than 120,000 counterfeit and illegal tablets have been seized in Ireland as part of the largest ever international clampdown on the sale of online medicines.

Rebecca Loverage has never used “tanning injections”, but she knows plenty of girls her own age who have.

Young women are putting their health at risk by using illegal tanning injections purchased on the internet, a Traveller organisation has warned.

Health shops have queried a warning by the Irish Medicines Board warning parents not to give herbal products containing echinacea to children under the age of 12.

The Irish Medicines Board is recommending that herbal remedies containing Echinacea should not be given to children under the age of 12.

The Irish Medicines Board has issued new advice against the use of certain herbal remedies on children.

The Irish Medicine's Board has issued a warning after reports of an increasing number of Irish women buying abortion pills online.

The Irish Medicines Board is to be notified that an obese young woman who died from cardiac failure had been taking slimming tablets new to the Irish market.

The medical device maker Smith & Nephew has issued a recall for part of one of its hip replacement systems.

There was growing pressure on the Harley Medical Group last night to agree a deal on the removal and replacement of PIP breast implants from the 1,100 women affected by the defective products.

Representatives from the PIP Action Group say they have had a "very positive" meeting with the state's Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan.