Online pharmacy warned by FDA for unapproved drugs

India-based Buynetmeds.com has been sent a warning letter by the FDA over the sale of misbranded and unapproved medicines, including opioid painkillers and weight-loss medicines, without a prescription.

The letter says that the FDA "has observed that www.buynetmeds.com introduces into interstate commerce unapproved and misbranded opioid drug products," namely tapentadol, as well as "unapproved and misbranded semaglutide drug products, including injectable versions." Semaglutide is the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk's multibillion-dollar obesity and diabetes drugs, respectively Wegovy and Ozempic.  

The regulator points out that making opioids available in this way can drive opioid addiction and abuse, which has created an immense public health crisis in the US, while injectables drugs "can pose a serious risk of harm to users because they bypass many of the body’s natural defenses against toxic ingredients, toxins, or dangerous organisms that can lead to serious and life-threatening conditions such as septicaemia or sepsis."

Unapproved new drugs do not carry the same assurances of safety and effectiveness as those drugs subject to FDA oversight, according to the letter, which goes in to say that "drugs that have circumvented regulatory safeguards may be contaminated, counterfeit, contain varying amounts of active ingredients, or contain different ingredients altogether."