Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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684. To ask the Minister for Health if his Department has any statistics on the volume of banned slimming pills that are being imported; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24337/13]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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In 2010 all medicines containing sibutramine, a prescription medicine used to assist weight loss were withdrawn in Ireland and across the EU due to an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. The active substance sibutramine is however currently to be found in unauthorised brands of slimming products sold illegally on the internet either directly from abroad or imported into Ireland and sold by mail order and by person to person contact sales.

At present, internet / mail order supply of prescription medicines is prohibited in Ireland. The Irish Medicines Board (IMB) works closely with Revenue’s Customs Service to prevent the illegal supply of mail order medicines into Ireland. This co-operation has led to the seizure of many individual packets of medicines and has resulted in a number of prosecutions and other enforcement actions involving website operators.

During the period 2010 - 2012 the following quantities of illegal slimming medicinal products containing sibutramine were detained by Revenue’s Customs Service;

The IMB has consistently stressed the dangers of buying medicines online and urges consumers not to risk their health by using these illegal medicines. In 2012 the IMB issued a precautionary message to consumers on the health dangers of taking any sibutramine containing slimming product. The precautionary message listed the names of 38 illegal products known to contain sibutramine, over 20 of which had been detained, from time to time, by Revenue’s Customs Service at the point of entry to the State.

In cooperation with the Customs Service, the IMB follows up with the intended recipient of each of these attempted supplies and explains that the product is illegal and the health risks associated with seeking to source and use such products. The IMB has also detained sibutramine containing products illegally on sale in Ireland.