VMD Inspections and Enforcement report October - November 2025
Results from inspections and enforcement activities October-November 2025.
Key Messages
Prescription fraud
It is against the law for anyone to alter a written veterinary prescription without permission from the vet who signed it – this is prescription fraud.
- This warning comes after the VMD’s intelligence unit conducted analysis into reports of prescription fraud made to the VMD from Jan – June 2025.
- Analysis showed that prescription fraud continues to be an ongoing trend in enforcement cases reported to the VMD. For example, between January 2023 and June 2025, 1,852 reports of prescription fraud were submitted to the VMD. Of these reports 84% (1,545) were tampered prescriptions, and 16% (287) were full fraud / complete fabrications.
- The products involved remain consistent across the data and include, dermatitis treatment, anti-inflammatory, cardiovascular treatments, and parasiticides.
- A full summary of this analysis will be made available in due course.
If you believe someone has committed prescription fraud, you should report it to the VMD Enforcement Team.
Counterfeit flea treatments
Following a press release issued in June from the VMD and Intellectual Property Office, warning of counterfeit flea treatments being sold online, there has been a 7-fold increase in reporting of suspected counterfeit flea treatments to the VMD.
- Prior to June 2025 the VMD received 6 reports of counterfeit flea and tick treatments, including all available historical data. Following the article, 49 reports have been received. An increase of 700%, with 11 reports alone being made October to November 2025.
- The VMD is carrying out intelligence analysis with an aim of understanding the problem so enforcement action can be taken.
- The VMD have already contacted several eBay sellers and retailers in relation to this.
If you encounter suspicious veterinary medicines or retailers, please report them to the VMD Enforcement Team. Further tips on spotting fake veterinary medicines and staying safe when purchasing medicines online can be found in the press release issued by the VMD and Intellectual Property Office.
Use of products exceeding broach limits
18% of vet practices inspected by the VMD between October and November 2025 were found to be using a medicine beyond its broach limits.
- Vets must ensure they check the broach limits before using a product. The medicine has not been assessed as being safe to use beyond the broach limit and it is an offence to do so.
- You should label the product with the open date or date to use the product by when it is first broached. If you don’t know if the product is still in date, you should not use it.
Enforcement activities
New cases received between October to November 2025: 200
Action VMD has taken:
- 5 enforcement notices
- 219 letters sent
- 77 illegal listings removed
- 321 enforcement cases closed
The 5 enforcement notices cover seizures of illegally imported veterinary medicines predominantly destined for residential premises in Great Britain. These seizures contained several different veterinary medicines, including horse wormers, flea and tick treatments for companion animals, and anti-inflammatory medication. Further information on each seizure is published in VMD’s seizure notices.
New cases this period related to a wide range issues including:
- marketing material for non-MA products which made medicinal claims
- prescription fraud/tampering cases
- illegal sale of veterinary medicines online
There continues to be consistent reports of sales of prescription only medicines via non-authorised retailers and social media platforms. This has been an ongoing trend, for example, in 2024 the VMD received 55 reports, and a further 52 reports were made in 2025. These reports can be broken down as follows:
2024 - 55 incidents:
- 21.8% on Online marketplaces
- 36.4% on social media platforms
- 41.8% other (websites, direct supply, shops)
2025 – 52 incidents:
- 5.8% on Online marketplaces
- 26.9% on social media platforms
- 67.3% other (websites, direct supply, shops)
The VMD will be launching an intelligence-based project to tackle this issue and reduce these cases. The VMD continually work to remove illegal sales listings of medicines in, most being unauthorised flea and tick treatments sold on online marketplaces.
- Sale or supply of prescription only medicines via non-authorised retailers and social media platforms is illegal, and you may be subject to VMD enforcement action if caught doing so. The medicines purchased are usually not authorised in the UK, meaning that the customer is committing an offence of illegal importation.
- It is important that only appropriately authorised products are purchased online as the VMD have not assessed unauthorised products, therefore their safety, quality and efficacy cannot be assured. Buying from unknown websites or online marketplaces could also increase the likelihood of purchasing a counterfeit or substandard product.
The VMD have also removed several listings from Facebook Marketplace and Vinted of partly used or leftover veterinary medicines.
It is illegal to supply leftover and partly used veterinary medicines and you could be subject to VMD enforcement action.
Any leftover medicines should be disposed of appropriately, referring to the disposal instructions on the product information leaflet.
Inspections activities
Inspections conducted between October and November 2025: 188
VMD inspections between October and November 2025 were conducted at veterinary medicine manufacturing sites, wholesalers, vet practices, Suitably Qualified Person (SQP) retailers and feed business operators dealing with medicated feed. Feed business operators cover commercial feed mills, on-farm feed manufacturers and feed distributors.
There was a mixture of routine inspections, first visits and enforcement visits.
Most common issues noted at inspections between October and November 2025
Manufacturers and Wholesalers
- Issues with Wholesale Qualified Persons (WQPs) not fulfilling all their responsibilities.
- For wholesalers, the VMR and the VMD’s recently published Good Distribution Practice for Veterinary Medicinal Products in Great Britain - Guidance - GOV.UK sets out the requirements wholesale dealers must comply with.
The WQP has specific responsibilities to follow, if you are a WQP you must ensure you know what these requirements are and that you are fulfilling them.
Feed Businesses
- Issues supplying against medicated feed prescriptions – seen at 18% of feed business inspections conducted.
Medicated feed can only be supplied against a valid medicated feed prescription. If there is an issue with the prescription, then the feed manufacturer must discuss it with the prescriber and resolve any issues. There must be traceability to ensure that the medicated feed is manufactured and supplied in accordance with the instructions from the prescriber.
- Issues with Hazard Analysis and Critical Controls Points plans – seen at 18% of feed business inspections conducted – seen at 25% of feed business inspections conducted.
Feed manufacturers must have a Hazard Analysis and Critical Controls Points plan that is reviewed regularly. This ensures they have identified, evaluated and controlled the main risks involved in the production of feed to reduce the risk of them occurring.
Vet Practices
- Exceeding the broach limits for medicines – seen at 18% of vet practice inspections conducted.
Some medicines, especially injectable products, will have a broach limit. This means that once the medicine has been broached and the first dose withdrawn, the rest of the medicine must be used within the specified time. In most cases this is 28 days but there are still plenty of medicines that have longer limits or shorter limits. Vets must follow these limits, and they should do this by writing the date the bottle was first broached or the date it must be used by on the bottles. Once the limit has passed it is illegal to use it again.
- Not recording all the required information when supplying/prescribing medicines – seen at 21% of vet practice inspections conducted.
A vet must record several pieces of information when they prescribe or administer a medicine to an animal. This is to ensure that there is appropriate traceability and justification for the vet to have used the medicine. It is vital they ensure they record all the information required, which can be found in Regulation 23 of the Veterinary Medicines Regulations (as amended) 2013.
SQP Retailers
- Issues of prescribing at the time of supply in relation to small pots of medicated feed seen at 11% of SQP retailer inspections conducted.
SQPs must ensure they check whether the use is domestic or commercial when supplying small amounts of intermediate medicated feed. They are allowed to supply small quantities to domestic keepers without the need for the person to be authorised to manufacture medicated feed. However, they must check that the person’s animals are for domestic use only and that they are not used for production, including supplying eggs at the back gate.
- Issues with ambient temperature monitoring – seen at 11% of SQP retailer inspections conducted.
It is a requirement for retailers to store medicines in accordance with the label conditions. During this period, some retailers were not recording their ambient temperatures appropriately to demonstrate that the medicines are being stored correctly. This can be done using max/min thermometers or data loggers, but every retailer must keep suitable records to show they have stored the medicines correctly.
Importance of reporting
The VMD encourages everyone to report any potential breaches of the regulations via our online reporting tool.
Whilst the VMD can’t follow up to reporters on individual cases, they do act on the reports received and investigate the concerns that you have raised.
This Inspections and Enforcement Report is the first in a series of regular reports published by the VMD, providing more information on common VMR breaches and details on enforcement action taken in response to reports and intelligence.
All formal enforcement notices are published online for 12 months.
If you do have any further questions or feedback on this report, please contact us at [email protected]
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/vmd-inspections-and-enforcement-report-october-november-2025
