London-based Gurinder Bharaj has been sentenced to 20 months in prison after pleading guilty to eight counts of possession and supply of significant quantities of unauthorised and unlicensed erectile dysfunction (ED) medication.
UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said on Monday its investigators raided a property belonging to Bharaj in Ealing, west London, where some 100,000 individual doses of unlicensed ED medicines worth more than £30,000 were seized.
Following an initial hearing, Bharaj, who is based in Southall, west London, pleaded guilty to all charges. He was sentenced on Friday to 20 months imprisonment with immediate effect (concurrent to all counts) and ordered to pay a £75 victim surcharge.
MHRA’s head of enforcement, Alastair Jeffrey, said: “Selling unlicensed medicines is illegal and can pose a serious risk to health. The fact that a medicine is unauthorised means that it has not been subjected to the regulatory scrutiny and quality assurances required to get a license.
“These products can be dangerous as their contents are unknown and untested and the consequences for your health can be devastating.”
{{/usCountry}}“These products can be dangerous as their contents are unknown and untested and the consequences for your health can be devastating.”
{{/usCountry}}MHRA said it was running the #FakeMeds campaign to warn people against buying potentially dangerous or useless unlicensed medicines sold by illegal online suppliers.