Counterfeiting medicines takes place on a huge scale, and constitutes part of organised crime. The profit margin is higher than that for drug trafficking, and the penalties are lower. The annual turnover of the illegal trade in medicines has been estimated in billions of francs.
The impression often given is that an Internet pharmacy is located in Great Britain, Canada or the USA, but most of the medicines in fact come from India, China, or the United Arab Emirates.
Not only the sellers but also the senders of spam mails and the people behind the websites are unscrupulous. They don't care about the patient's health, but only about making money.
If the authorities manage to shut down one website with dangerous medicines – something that calls for considerable resources – the very same products are often made available on a new one.