The Health Ministry has seized 251,782 illegal health products worth about RM2.8 million in Operation Pangea XI mounted between Oct 9 and 10.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah among the seized items were 106,222 abortion pills, injectable Vitamin C, unregistered antibiotics and steroids, poisonous slimming products, 90,304 unregistered medicines and 55,526 illegal pharmaceutical products.

“Apart from that, action had also been taken against 339 traders who promoted those illegal and unregistered products, while 403 websites and 723 social sites had been blocked for the same reason,” he said in a statement here today.

Noor Hisham said that Ops Pangea XI was carried out with the cooperation from the ministry’s Pharmaceutical Enforcement Division, as well as the Customs Department, the Communications and Multimedia Commission, and CyberSecurity Malaysia.

“The operation was coordinated by Interpol with 116 other countries in a bid to combat online sales of dangerous health products and medical devices to members of the general public,” he said.

He said this year’s operation targeted three main suspects, namely the providers of internet services, electronic payment systems and courier and postal services.

- Bernama