INTERNATIONAL police and health officials from 24 countries, including Singapore, screened 751 websites in a week-long sting operation to crack down on the sale of unapproved and mislabeled medicines, Bloomberg news reported.

Regulators seized almost 167,000 illicit and counterfeit pills as part of the International Internet Week of Action coordinated by the World Health Organisation and Interpol, said the UK's Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

The goals of the effort, dubbed Pangea II, were to uncover makers and distributors of illicit drugs and increase public awareness about the danger of buying medical products over the Internet. Investigators focused on Internet service providers, payment systems and delivery services to identify more than 16,000 suspicious packages worldwide.

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