Almost 20 million doses of illegally traded medicines with a potential street value of nearly £45 million were seized by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) last year, it revealed today.
It worked with law enforcement partners to seize “almost 10 million doses of sedatives and sleeping pills”, over four million doses of “powerful painkillers” and more than four million doses of erectile dysfunction treatments.
MHRA financial investigators also “denied criminals access to more than £2.1m in assets linked to the illegal trade in medicines”, it added.
Read more: MHRA busts ‘large-scale’ illegal online Class B drug supply
During 2025, the watchdog’s criminal enforcement unit seized “more than 5,000 illegally traded glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) products”, including “more than 2,000 unlicensed retatrutide and tirzepatide pens” from a warehouse raid in Northampton in October, it said.
It also “worked with internet service providers to disrupt more than 1,500 websites and social media accounts illegally selling medical products to the public”, along with removing “more than 1,200 social media posts” during the year, it added.
And the “cutting-edge AI algorithm” the MHRA developed with eBay “successfully identified and blocked” more than two million “violations of the company’s policies” on prescription only and over the counter medicines “before the products could be offered for sale to the public”, it said.
Relentless efforts
MHRA deputy enforcement director Andy Morling said the watchdog “removed more illegally traded medicines from circulation than ever before” this year – rising to 20 million from 17 million in 2024.
“Criminals see this trade as easy money, but our relentless efforts are making it increasingly difficult for them to operate,” he said, adding that the MHRA’s focus is to stop these “dangerous products reaching the public”.
Morling urged the public to “think very carefully before buying powerful medicines online”, encouraging people to “always use a registered pharmacy” to ensure their safety.
Read more: MHRA crack-down seized £40m in illegally traded drugs last year
It comes after the MHRA revealed in October that it had “dismantled” a “major illicit manufacturing facility” making unlicensed weight loss jabs following a record-breaking two-day raid on a warehouse.
And it announced in November that it had disrupted a “multimillion-pound criminal network” supplying unlicensed medicines - including Class B and Class C drugs – via “a series of websites”.
Meanwhile, the watchdog seized more than 17 million doses of illegally traded medicines amounting to a “potential street value” of more than £40m in 2024.
