Fraudsters are Using Grindr to Buy HIV Meds

By: Brandon M. Macsata, CEO, ADAP Advocacy; Shabbir Imber Safdar, Executive Director, Partnership for Safe Medicines

Earlier this year, ADAP Advocacy, in collaboration with the Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM),  issued an important safety alert warning Grindr's users to stop selling their HIV and other medications on the popular gay dating App. Medicine buyback schemes falsely claim to be "Buyers Clubs" making medicine available to people who cannot afford them. In reality criminals buy medicine, and sometimes empty bottles, from patients and sell them at a discount to unsuspecting pharmacies who dispense it to patient victims. The safety alert urged Grindr's users to be more mindful of patient safety.

Photo Source: ADAP Advocacy

Grindr, as well as potentially other dating Apps, are being used as a platform for fake user profiles operating under counterfeit drug rings to buy prescription medications. This seemingly innocent practice is not only illegal, but it is jeopardizing the drug supply chain and putting the health of patients at risk for health complications, severe illness, and even death. It often targets high-cost drugs – because the potential profit spread is higher – often associated with the treatment of cancer, diabetes, and HIV (and others).

This is not a theoretical patient danger: over the past five years, hundreds of millions of dollars of HIV medicine has been diverted and counterfeited in the drug supply this way, resulting in some patients getting fake medicines. 

ADAP Advocacy and PSM potentially uncovered one such counterfeit drug ring in New Orleans Parish earlier this year and immediately alerted both the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, as well as Gilead Sciences. Earlier this year, Gilead Sciences uncovered a criminal enterprise centered in Florida distributing over $230 million of counterfeit drugs, some of which were their HIV antiretroviral medications.

In response to the Florida fraudsters, ADAP Advocacy and PSM aired a public service announcement sharing some important steps patients can take to combat counterfeit drugs. Additionally, PSM hosted an online briefing focused on recent breaches in the United States drug supply chain that put patients living with HIV at risk.

If you see people trying to buy medicine on dating apps, please report them to us.

• REPORT FRAUDSTERS by filling out this webform
• By emailing us at report@safemedicines.org
• By texting us at (415) 367-0067.

Additional collaboration on patient safety in the fight against counterfeit drug rings is warranted in this space. Download the safety alert, here.

Photo Source: ADAP Advocacy

Disclaimer: Guest blogs do not necessarily reflect the views of the ADAP Advocacy Association, but rather they provide a neutral platform whereby the author serves to promote open, honest discussion about public health-related issues and updates.