Incidence of anabolic steroid counterfeiting in Brazil

This retrospective study reports data obtained from the National Institute of Criminalistics of the Brazilian Federal Police Department (DPF) on 3676 anabolic products seized between 2006 and 2011. Anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) were declared on the labels of 96.2% of the products. About one third of the products declared to be from Paraguay, and 14.3% from Brazil. Stanozolol, testosterone and nandrolone were the substances most declared on the labels. Package and qualitative chemical analyses (performed on 2818 products) found that 31.7% of the seized products were counterfeit, with an increase in the counterfeit detection rate during the period. Almost half of the fake products did not contain the declared substances, and 28.3% had only non-declared substances. Testosterone and its esters were responsible for 45% of the 582 cases of non-declared drug detection. Package analysis alone was responsible for the identification of 4.6% of all counterfeit products. These results indicate the need for a continuous effort by the government aimed at decreasing the availability of these products in the country.