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Illegal veterinary medicines a ‘significant and growing problem’
Illegal veterinary medicines comprise of counterfeit, falsified and unregistered products.
Report identifies risks to animals and humans 

Illegal veterinary medicines are costing the global animal health industry an estimated $1-2 billion per year, according to a report by the global medicines association, HealthforAnimals.

The report, Illegal Veterinary Medicines: Impacts and Effective Control, is the first ever assessment of illegal veterinary medicines. It outlines the size of the illegal veterinary medicines market and identifies some of the major risks to animals, vets, people and business.

“For the Animal Health industry as a whole, illegal veterinary medicines are a significant and growing problem,” the report notes. “The continuing rapid growth in online buying and selling of products (e-commerce) and a parallel growth in international trade especially of small packages, has created new opportunities for trade in illegal veterinary medicines.”

Illegal veterinary medicines comprise of counterfeit, falsified and unregistered products and unapproved parallel imports. They also include compounded pharmaceuticals and illegal autogenous vaccines when these products are not manufactured according to regulation.

Risks identified by the report include damage to business reputation arising from safety issues and the associated loss of confidence in authentic medicines. It also notes a risk to human safety through the consumption of food from animals treated with illegal medicines, less effective control of zoonotic infections and risks of increasing antimicrobial and antiparasitic resistance.

The report makes a number of recommendations to develop an effective strategy for the control of illegal veterinary medicines. They include communicating an effective narrative with an emphasis on safety, collaborating with enforcement agencies, and using data to show trends and case studies.

HealthforAnimals says that it may take up to seven years and appropriate resources for the recommendations to come into effect and to see the full impact on illegal veterinary medicines.

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RCVS Knowledge appoints Veterinary Evidence editor-in-chief

News Story 1
 RCVS Knowledge has welcomed Professor Peter Cockcroft as editor-in-chief for Veterinary Evidence.

A world-renowned expert in evidence-based veterinary medicine, Prof Cockcroft will lead the strategic development and editorial quality of the open-access journal. He was previously in the role from 2017-2020.

Katie Mantell, CEO of RCVS Knowledge, said: "We are excited about the extensive knowledge of evidence-based veterinary medicine and clinical veterinary research that Peter brings, and we look forward to working with him over this next phase of the journal's development." 

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News Shorts
CVS Group hit by cyber attack

CVS Group, which owns more than 450 veterinary practices in the UK, has been hit by a cyber attack.

In a statement, the group said the incident involved unauthorised external access to a limited number of its IT systems. As soon as the attack was discovered, the group took its IT systems temporarily offline, causing 'considerable operational disruption'.

It has warned that the security steps taken and ongoing plans to move its operational systems and IT infrastructure to the Cloud are likely to have an ongoing impact over a number of weeks.

Due to the risk that personal information was accessed, CVS has informed the Information Commissioner's Office. The company is working with third party consultants to investigate the incident.