The report of the Counterfeiting Superhighway, conducted by the European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines (EAASM), indicates that 62 percent of drugs purchased through the Internet are counterfeit.

Similarly, 95.6 percent of the consulted online pharmacies operate unlawfully and 94 percent of the pages in question did not identify the pharmaceutical or have any professional proof.

The picture becomes even more negative when it appears that in all the cases examined - illegal or not - 90 percent of online pharmacies sell drugs subject to prescription without any kind of limitation.

In this context, only 38 percent of medicines bought on the Internet showed to be true, even with 16 percent of them to be of legally imported from the United States. Also 33 per cent of legal drugs were sold without the prescription, "besides being illegal is potentially dangerous for the health of consumers," says the report. Among the medicines available, are those that are indicated for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, respiratory, psychiatric and others.

The variety of medications available online, the selling of products without prescription and lack of control regarding the legality of the drugs are the three factors that may lead consumers to "take medicines that may harm their health and, in extreme cases, bring them to death", notes Jim Thomson, president of EAASM.