Pharmacists warn against internet slimming pills

Irish pharmacists are warning people against purchasing slimming pills over the internet, following calls for public education campaigns on appetite-suppressant pills from the United Nations drug control board.

"There is a genuine risk for women and girls who want to lose weight - but who don't have a clinical weight problem - going on the internet to buy prescription-only weight-loss drugs and other slimming products," said Kathryn Maher, a pharmacist based in Duleek, Co Meath. "Slimming pills, Viagra and anti-depressants are the most common drugs offered over the internet and those who are desperate to lose weight will try anything to do so."

The warning from the UN International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) came after the death of 21-year-old anorexic Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston who was believed to have been taking slimming pills and painkillers.

Dr Philip Emafo, president of the INCB, said: "Appetite-suppressant drugs have a use in the treatment of life-threatening obesity when prescribed and monitored by doctors. However, they are instead being used indiscriminately to feed the slimming obsession that affects some societies."

Stephen McMahon, of the Irish Patients' Association (IPA), said slimming drugs "are for those with serious weight problems. They are not lifestyle drugs and people need to be protected from buying prescription-only drugs on the internet which can be dangerous to their health or even counterfeit."

The scale of medicine purchasing over the internet in Ireland is still unknown although the most recent EU figures said 500,000 counterfeit medicines were seized at the external borders of the EU in 2005.

The World Health Organisation estimated recently that 50 per cent of internet medicine supplies into the developed countries were counterfeit.

A spokeswoman for the Irish Medicines Board said yesterday that purchases of a medicinal product over the internet provided no guarantees that the purchaser was getting what he ordered. "The produce may have an active ingredient but less than required or even none at all," she said. "It may contain contaminants which may be harmful to the patient's health. There is also no guarantee that a medicinal product supplied via the internet has been manufactured by a facility authorised to EU standards."

Sibetramine (sold as Reductil) is the only appetite-suppressant drug available on the Irish market. A serotonin and noradrenaline re-uptake inhibitor, it increases the feeling of fullness, thus reducing food intake.

Orlistat is the only other weight-loss drug available on prescription in Ireland.