The packaging looks a little different. So what?

Falsified Medicinal Products are a constant presence in the supply chain, and could be a serious threat to your health.

With many people feeling the squeeze of the economy now, the urge to get quick and cheap medicines delivered to your house is greater than ever.

The people involved in the operations that produce them have no interest at all in your health and welfare, only the money they will get. Unregistered online pharmacies may hold products that could be completely inert and ineffective. Other products could be dangerous to the patient, and they will not know until a few hours after ingesting the “medicine”.
According to a 2021 press release by the Gov.uk website, 13,000 illegally operating websites were removed, or had their URLs blocked. 8 search warrants were executed, with 7 criminals arrested. Over 3 million falsified medicinal products and medical devices that were illegally supplied were intercepted, with a total value of 9 million pounds. You can read more on the article here.

Falsified Medicinal Products: Being the front line

Intercepting the falsified medicines and devices in our UK supply chain is an ongoing task, performed by many trained handlers and personnel up and down the country. Sometimes the signs are fairly obvious (poor print quality etc). Other times it’s very hard to tell. The only way to do this is to be trained in the art of recognising falsified medicinal products. It even involves forensic-like checking of supplied documents, that may not have correct or corresponding details on them.

The average person in the street may never know if they have received a falsified medicine or device. It is OUR joint responsibility to protect the public from the threat that falsified medicines can bring.

The Falsified Medicines Directive

The Falsified Medicine Directive was disapplied at the beginning of this year (2025) and is no longer referred to by the UK. Nevertheless, the very nature of falsified medicines and the threat they bring has not changed and remains constant; training on how to spot the falsifieds, fake and counterfeit meds is still required and must still be applied as due diligence at the point of consignment intake and unpacking/put-away procedures.
If you have any doubt about even a single package or unit of medicine, you must point it out to the RP.

Paradigm Shift Consulting has a comprehensive training platform and includes a course and examination on the subject of Falsified Medicines. The course covers all aspects of the subject, including visual examples of what to look for, the consequences of not checking or not being trained, what the procedures are if you suspect a falsified medicinal product has been delivered, and the consequential actions that have to be undertaken.

If you are handling medicines and medical devices with no formal certificated training from a registered and authorised training facility, you are operating outside of  required GDP Compliance, and you are not operating lawfully.

Training and Support

If you or your staff are not trained in how to recognise falsified medicines, then call us on the phone number at the top of this webpage, or use the contact form below to message us directly, quoting “falsified medicines” in your text.

We are here to help you attain competency and Good Distribution Practice awareness within your business.