ROTTERDAM – Customs officers in the Netherlands seized 665 packages containing illegal medicines touted online to treat Covid-19 during checks on postal and courier shipments. The packages, confiscated as part of an international campaign over the past three months, contained 55,000 pills, capsules, ointments, and vials.

A large part of the seized medicines involved Ivermectin – a drug used to treat mange and various helminthic infections in animals. Widely shared posts online claimed it was effective in treating Covid-19 without any actual evidence of this. Antibiotics and antimalarial drugs were also intercepted.

The confiscated drugs mainly came from India, Hong Kong, and Singapore. They were intended for private individuals. No illegal Covid-19 vaccines were found Medicines bought online can be dangerous, warned Roderick Runne, chief inspector of the Health and Youth Care Inspectorate. “These medicines can contain dangerous contaminants or the wrong dosage of the active ingredient.”