Russian and Chinese gangs make billions from fake medicines

RUSSIAN gangs and their Chinese associates are making billions of dollars from selling fake and unlicensed medicines over the Internet, putting thousands of people at risk, police and medical regulators have warned.

The criminals sell the potentially hazardous products through legitimate-looking pharmacy websites run from Russia with their IT infrastructure routed through China to try to evade detection, they said.

More than 2.5 million doses of counterfeit, controlled and withdrawn drugs were seized across 79 countries in seven days of raids coordinated by international police organisation Interpol under an operation codenamed Pangea that ended on Tuesday.