E-commerce surveillance project of irregular products: Anvisa’s experience report

• Autor(a) principal: Teixeira, Leidy Anne Alves
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Vigilância Sanitária em Debate
• Texto Completo: https://visaemdebate.incqs.fiocruz.br/index.php/visaemdebate/article/view/2106
• topic: Anvisa; Fiscalização; Comércio Eletrônico; Anvisa; Surveillance; Electronic commerce; e-commerce; inspección sanitaria; Anvisa

Introduction: Electronic commerce, called e-commerce, has been driven by expanded access to the internet, smartphones and marketing strategies to reach new consumers. However, products subject to health surveillance must comply with legal requirements to be marketed in a way that ensures their quality and safety. Objective: To report Anvisa’s experience of applying an automated search platform to monitor e-commerce of products under its jurisdiction. Method: Anvisa has hired an automated search platform to verify the regularity of products advertised via electronic commerce. These are: medicines, medical devices, food, cosmetics, sanitizing products, and smoking products. Search terms were chosen considering the product categories and the health risk. The platform identifies irregular products and notifies the advertiser to remove the ad. Results: In 8 months of implementation of the pilot project, 50,636,985 million signals were collected. Of these, 64,767 corresponded to irregular ads in which advertisers were notified to withdrawal. Conclusions: Innovative actions for monitoring products subject to health surveillance is a necessity given the large volume of data present in commercial operations and the reach of e-commerce.