Canadian online pharmacy ordered to stop marketing to U.S.

A Winnipeg-based internet pharmacy, believed to be Canada's biggest, has been ordered by U.S. officials to stop marketing drugs to American customers through 3,700 websites registered in different countries.

CanadaDrugs.com, owned by Manitoban Kris Thorkelson, was sent a warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Sept. 21.

"We continue to see the proliferation of illegal online pharmacies that sell potentially dangerous medicines. FDA targeted those websites selling unapproved and potentially dangerous medicines that can be detrimental to public health," an FDA public affairs officer said in a statement to CBC News.

"Some of these products contain active ingredients that are approved by FDA only for use under the supervision of a licensed health-care practitioner or active ingredients that were withdrawn from the U.S. market due to safety issues."

Thorkelson has already been named in an FDA investigation into an international wholesale drug distribution network that has allegedly sold counterfeit versions of cancer drugs Avastin and Altuzan to American oncologists.

CanadaDrugs.com could not be reached for comment today. However, earlier this year a spokesperson said the company doesn't sell Avastin.

Last month's stern warning to stop marketing was part of an international crackdown on the sale of illegal medicines online called Pangea-V. The operation, which spans 100 countries, has also targeted 4,100 Canadian online pharmacies.

And on Thursday, the RCMP and Canadian Border Services Agency, announced that as part of Pangea-V, 3.75 million units of potentially life-threatening medicines have been seized worldwide, worth $10.5 million US.

In Canada, in the past two weeks more than 138,000 illicit and fake pills were seized worth just over $1 million Cdn. The FDA confirms that some of those drugs were connected to CanadaDrugs.com.

The RCMP said the drugs that were seized in Canada came from 18 countries, and included anti-depressants, prescription weight loss products and erectile dysfunction drugs.

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Canadian online pharmacy ordered to stop marketing to U.S.