Spamiflu buyers 'taking life in hands'
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Health authorities insist there is plenty of Tamiflu available in pharmacies. (AAP: Roche)
Health officials have warned against buying the drug Tamiflu over the internet.
In the two months since swine flu surfaced in Mexico it has swept around the globe, infecting more than 70,000 people and killing more than 300 in 100 countries.
There are fears that online drug sales will soar following the World Health Organisation's (WHO) announcement that the spread of the virus is now unstoppable.
Health specialists say drugs bought over the internet could be fakes and could put lives at risk.
Swine flu is spreading quickly in the southern hemisphere which is now in the grip of its winter flu season.
In the UK the Government predicts the number of new cases will rise to 100,000 a day in Britain by the end of next month, triggering concerns that the public will start panic-buying swine flu drugs.
Tamiflu is now the most spammed medicine on the internet, overtaking the sex drug Viagra.
But David Pruce from the UK's Royal Pharmaceutical Society cautions that swine flu drugs sold over the internet are mostly fakes.
"These sites could be based anywhere in the world. They could be selling absolutely anything from sugar to rat poison," he said.
"Counterfeiters are very good at producing goods that look like the genuine article. It doesn't matter really if it's counterfeit jeans.
"When it's counterfeit medicines and you've got really no idea what's in the tablet or the capsule, you're taking your life in your hands."
Mick Deats, head of the UK's medicines regulator the MHRA, says counterfeit medicines are generally manufactured in the far east.
"[They are] dressed in English language packaging, making them almost indistinguishable from the real thing, and then [sent onto] consumers and patients," he said.
"And, of course, prices are extortionist. At the moment they're going for between 50 and 100 pounds [$100 - $200] a pack."
Mr Deats warns that buying pharmaceutical drugs over the internet is unsafe.
"There's no such thing as a good counterfeit medicine. You think about the circumstances of the manufacturer," he said.
"There are strict guidelines, laws and regulation in place for genuine manufacturers; sterile conditions, really very strict criteria for the manufacturing of genuine medicine.
"You don't see that criteria existing in relation to counterfeits. They are always contain impurities. Frequently you have a reduced amount of the correct active ingredient, but that still doesn't mean it's a good medicine."
He says diluted medicines can cause diseases to develop resistances to the drug altogether.
"You also see counterfeits medicines that do have toxic ingredients," he said.
"We've seen a number of fatalities around the world caused by counterfeit medicine. You don't know how this medicine's been stored.
"Frequently we'll see a crisp, clean website with a doctor and nurse and stethoscopes and it all looks very clinical, but when we get behind the scenes we'll be carrying out a search warrant on a back street garage; someone will be changing the brake pads in one corner and on the other side of the room they'll be supplying internet sales."
Health authorities insist there is plenty of Tamiflu available in pharmacies.
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