There is a dangerous trend afoot in the medical aesthetic space – counterfeit medical devices, including fake dermal fillers. Year after year, The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) reflects on the successes of global action against the illegal trade in fake medicines and medical devices, consistently seizing large quantities from organised operators.1 It has also been estimated that 41.1% of practitioners have encountered counterfeits and 39.7% have experienced patients with adverse events from them.2
Counterfeiting affects many products, medical devices and cosmetic classifications, with a rise in UK imports of imitations of well-established dermal filler brands. The attraction for counterfeiters seems to stem from fillers’ status as the most in-demand cosmetic products within a global consumer-driven sector that has grown exponentially.
Selling counterfeit pharmaceuticals is an attractive prospect for criminals, with high-profit margins, low chance of detection and prosecution and the ease with which they can deceive end users. In…
