On Saturday (4 April 2020) the UK Government issued a press release on how the medicines and medical devices regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), is investigating the increasing number of bogus medical products being sold through unauthorised websites claiming to treat or prevent COVID-19 cases of fake or unlicensed COVID-19 medical products.
These concerns were reflected in our blog post of 2 April, COVID Counterfeits, which identified many of the problems facing business supply chains caused by the opportunities that unscrupulous parties see arising from the pandemic, and suggested ways to deal with them using intellectual property rights and advertising regulations inter alia.
The Government's press release refers to "self-testing kits, ‘miracle cures’, ‘antiviral misting sprays’, and unlicensed medicines" as being amongst the products being promoted, and states very clearly:
"At this time, there are currently no medicines licensed specifically for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19 and there are no CE marked self-testing kits approved for home use".
According to the press release, the MHRA has disabled 9 domain names and social media accounts selling fake or unauthorised COVID-19 products.
Lynda Scammell, MHRA Enforcement Official, is quoted as saying: "There is no medicine licensed specifically to treat or prevent COVID-19, therefore any claiming to do so are not authorised and have not undergone regulatory approvals required for sale on the UK market. We cannot guarantee the safety or quality of the product and this poses a risk to your health."
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