{"id":842991,"date":"2026-09-10T14:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T14:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/842991\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T14:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T14:06:14","slug":"watchdog-asked-amazon-to-remove-dozens-of-medicines-many-of-which-included-ivermectin-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/842991\/","title":{"rendered":"Watchdog asked Amazon to remove dozens of medicines, many of which included Ivermectin \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Online retail giant Amazon<\/a> was asked to take down dozens of listings selling anti-parasitic medicines, some of which are only allowed for use in animals in Ireland.<\/p>\n

The Health Products Regulatory Authority<\/a> (HPRA) wrote to Amazon in March flagging 56 separate links, many of which offered Ivermectin and Fenbendazole for sale.<\/p>\n

The two drugs have been promoted online as a cure or treatment for a wide variety of health conditions including cancer and autism.<\/p>\n

Ivermectin is indicated for use in humans; however, no human medicines containing Fenbendazole are approved.<\/p>\n

The HPRA confirmed this week that there did not appear to be any listings for either product on Amazon\u2019s Ireland or UK websites.<\/p>\n

It said seizures of both drugs continued to rise, however, with a \u201ccontinued upward trend\u201d in detentions during the first half of the year.<\/p>\n

Internal records detailed how most of the Ivermectin being detained was arriving from India<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An internal email said the products were not \u201cdiverted veterinary medicines\u201d and appeared to have been manufactured specifically for human use.<\/p>\n

The message said: \u201cThese detentions appear to be linked to a phenomenon of Ivermectin being promoted online [as a] treatment for cancers, but also for other medical conditions including autism, dementia and autoimmune diseases.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch of the literature making these claims also makes reference to Fenbendazole and we have also seen an increase in detentions here \u2013 again in the form of human market tablets.\u201d<\/p>\n

A customs briefing said seizures of Ivermectin had spiked during the Covid-19 pandemic but by 2023 had begun to decline.<\/p>\n

However, in 2024, the drug began to be linked online to prevention or treatment of other conditions and not just coronavirus.<\/p>\n

The briefing said: \u201cThis literature also advocated the use of Fenbendazole which went from 100 detentions in 2023 to nearly 8,000 in 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n

It said there were three Ivermectin products approved for human use in Ireland but no \u201chuman medicines\u201d approved containing Fenbendazole.<\/p>\n

The email to Amazon in March said there appeared to be \u201cunderground manufacturing\u201d of the two drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese products do not appear to be made by reputable pharmaceutical companies and are not authorised as medicines by the HPRA (and probably most other regulators as well),\u201d the message added.<\/p>\n

The email said the products were \u201cfreely available,\u201d especially through Amazon\u2019s UK website but also through the Irish version.<\/p>\n

An official wrote: \u201cI wanted to make you aware to see if an effective and permanent block can be placed on them to prevent them from appearing again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The email also said at least one death in the UK had been attributed to use of Fenbendazole.<\/p>\n

Asked about the records, the HPRA said they wanted to reiterate the \u201cserious health risks\u201d of buying medicines through unauthorised channels.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said: \u201cThe HPRA continues to engage with a number of online platforms regarding the sale of Ivermectin and Fenbendazole, and other medicinal products.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesperson added that there had been a small number of adverse reaction reports relating to medicines containing Ivermectin over the past three years, but none related to Fenbendazole.<\/p>\n

They added: \u201cUsing such products can result in serious adverse effects and represents a real but fully avoidable danger to public health.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Amazon spokesperson said it had proactive measures in place to prevent prohibited products being listed and that the store was continuously monitored.<\/p>\n

They said: \u201cThose who violate our policies are subject to action including potential removal of their account. We have removed unauthorized Ivermectin\/Fenbendazole products from our store.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Online retail giant Amazon was asked to take down dozens of listings selling anti-parasitic medicines, some of which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[960,97,356902,243],"class_list":["post-842991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-amazon","tag-health","tag-health-products-regulatory-authority-hpra","tag-medication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}