DOH wants to stop scammers using celeb images for illegal med promotions

MANILA, Philippines — Department of Health (DOH) Chief Teodoro Herbosa said on Tuesday that he would instruct the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) to work with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to crack down on scammers exploiting celebrity visuals for unregistered medicine endorsements.

The move follows Sen. Jinggoy Estrada’s Senate Resolution 666, which seeks to probe the use of famous personalities to create endorsements for fake medicines deceptively.

“I’ve seen this on social media, many of my friends, my doctor friends, who are popular, have been victimized for drugs that they did not endorse, using their photos taken out of social media. These are really the scammers, so this is under the realm of, in DOH, this under the realm of FDA—Food and Drug Administration. They’re a regulatory body with police powers. So I will instruct the head of FDA Sam Zacate to actually coordinate with the NBI to get to the bottom of this,” said Herbosa in a press briefing in Malacañang.

Herbosa listed doctors Willie Ong and Tony Leachon as victims of these scams, saying that they have filed cases with the NBI’s Cybercrime division, but the ads would only temporarily disappear and resurface again.

“The first thing that I will advise to our citizens is to make sure that the drugs that they will procure or buy will have an FDA approval,” warned Herbosa in a mix of English and Filipino.

Estrada had cited products like Grandsure Gold, Glufarelin, and Golden Gout Colostrum among those using fake celebrity endorsements.

“Social media accounts of the abovementioned unregistered products are viewed and even shared by thousands of consumers, providing them with inaccurate and false information about the efficacy, quality, and safety of the food, drugs, and health products,” said Estrada.

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