Health Canada put out an advisory on Tuesday warning against purchasing unauthorized prescription drugs from the website “Dr. Pooja,” which sells abortion and "morning after" pills.
The agency says Canadians should not buy or use any unauthorized health products from “Dr. Pooja” websites, as the drugs could be ineffective, expired, mislabelled, subject to recalls, or counterfeit versions of authorized products.
Health Canada assesses health products for safety, efficacy, and quality before approval. Unauthorized products, such as the ones on this website, have not gone through this necessary process and are therefore illegal.
To add to the concern, unauthorized drugs could have no active ingredients, the wrong ingredients, or dangerous additives, making them unsafe.
The morning after pill is used as a form of emergency contraception to prevent pregnancy in situations of unprotected sex or suspected contraception failure.
Levonorgestrel, a non-prescription drug used commonly in these emergency instances, is also sold on the website in unauthorized over-the-counter drugs.
Prescription drugs should only be purchased from licensed pharmacies, and those who have purchased unauthorized products containing mifepristone and misoprostol should seek immediate medical attention for assessment, Health Canada says.
Health Canada says it has also directed the “Dr. Pooja” websites to stop selling these unauthorized and potentially dangerous drugs and is working to have the two currently active “Dr. Pooja” websites taken down, which lists their products as available for purchase through WhatsApp.
CTVNews.ca was unable to reach the Dr. Pooja clinics for comment through the phone number with a Montreal area code listed on one of the websites, nor through the WhatsApp number. Emails sent to the addresses listed on the websites were unanswered
Correction:
An earlier version of this article referred to pills containing mifepristone and misoprostol as the “morning after” pill, when in fact, these pills are used for abortions.
