birth control
2004-02-07 | 10:35 a.m.

Just a little public service announcement:

Birth-Control Fake Spurs Alert

By OTESA MIDDLETON

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Johnson & Johnson warned U.S. consumers not to buy a fake birth-control product offered for sale by a New Delhi-based Web site.

The fake birth-control patches offered on the site don't work, said the FDA and Johnson & Johnson. Both the federal agency and the company said the products aren't Ortho Evra contraceptive patches as the Web site claims.

The Web site hawks the patches, which arrive in the U.S. in plastic sandwich bags with no labeling or expiration information. The fake products are darker than the beige of the authentic patch.

Johnson & Johnson's Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical Inc. subsidiary sells the Ortho Evra patches with the FDA's approval.

The Internet site is operated by American Style Products, which also sells other items claiming to be versions of FDA-sanctioned goods.

"None of these products should be considered safe or effective," the FDA said in a release. "Consumers who have any of these products should not use them, but instead contact their health-care providers immediately."

The FDA worked with the U.S.-based Internet service provider to shut down the Web site.

"This case highlights the serious risks posed by foreign drug operations that bypass FDA safeguards. People are risking their health, in some cases their very lives, by buying illegal Internet drugs," said FDA Commissioner Mark B. McClellan.

The agency's office of criminal investigation is working with Johnson & Johnson and the Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Custom Enforcement's Cyber Crimes Center to crack down on counterfeit medical products.

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