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The Problems with Online Health Product Sales: How can Regulations be Improved?

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Abstract

With the rapid proliferation of online businesses, national authorities are facing challenges managing the online supply of illegal health products due to the anonymity of the internet, increasing number of global syndicates, new technologies, and inability to enforce against overseas sellers. This paper describes these challenges and the Health Sciences Authority’s regulatory approaches to tackle the online sales of illegal health products. These include partnering with platform administrators to remove illegal online postings, leveraging technological tools and relevant legislation, empowering consumers to make informed decisions, and fostering closer collaborations across different jurisdictions to combat online pharmaceutical crimes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health Sciences Authority, Singapore, Singapore

    Yi Jing Sng, Daryl Kwok, Eugene Goh, Annie Tan, Jessica Teo & Cheng Leng Chan

  2. Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, Singapore

    Cheng Leng Chan

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  1. Yi Jing Sng
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  2. Daryl Kwok
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  3. Eugene Goh
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  4. Annie Tan
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  5. Jessica Teo
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  6. Cheng Leng Chan
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Correspondence to Yi Jing Sng.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during this current study.

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YJ, DK, EG, AT, JT, and CL were equal contributors in writing the manuscript. All authors read, reviewed, and approved the final manuscript.

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Sng, Y.J., Kwok, D., Goh, E. et al. The Problems with Online Health Product Sales: How can Regulations be Improved?. Drug Saf (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40264-024-01414-8

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