The Saudi Food and Drug Authority has banned the sale of any kind of drug over the Internet, while imposing stricter measures for organizing the import of drugs through transport carriers.
“The SFDA is making every possible effort to combat drug cheating by putting in place necessary legislation to prevent the entry of counterfeit medicines,” explained executive vice president of the drug sector at the FDA Ibrahim Juffali.
“We are instituting measures to tighten control over the supply of drugs, and prevent trading or marketing of adulterated or illegal medications online or elsewhere. The latest technology will also be adopted to detect such drugs and deal with them accordingly,” he said.
This technology allows inspectors to identify adulterated medications in less than 10 seconds, according to Juffali.
He said samples of medicines are taken for analysis to ensure safety, while all drug shipments to the Kingdom are verified to ensue they meet conditions and safety requirements. The FDA prevents storage of medicines by unlicensed warehouses. All warehouses are strictly monigtored.
According to Juffali, global reports indicate counterfeit medicines make up 50 percent of drugs marketed and sold on the Internet, prompting the FDA to coordinate with authorities to prevent and monitor the sale of drugs online.
Teams from the authority also conduct routine inspections at all drug retailers in the Kingdom, and pull random samples to verify they conform to specifications.
“During the past three years, inspections of 12,000 samples from 4,000 pharmacies revealed that the percentage of fake medications in the Kingdom are under 1 percent,” said Juffali.
KSA bans online sale of drugs
KSA bans online sale of drugs
‘Cake not hate’ campaign becomes ‘Dates not hate’ in Madinah
- Dan said he was very impressed by Saudi hospitality and that his family was warmly welcomed
- He said being in Madinah exposed him to the true diversity of Islam
LONDON: A British autistic and non-verbal boy who has been visiting UK mosques and distributing cakes to promote solidarity amid an increase in far-right support in the country has taken his message of love to Madinah.
Joshua Harris, or “The Joshie-Man” as the 12-year-old is known to his social media fans, has handed out hundreds of his baked goods to worshipers at mosques in major British cities over the last few months.
The “Cake not hate” campaign came about after an Islamophobic attack on a mosque in his home city of Peterborough in October 2025.
Harris and his father visited Masjid Darassalaam, the mosque that was targeted, with cakes that the boy had baked and distributed them to the congregation soon after the attack. Since then, Harris has visited dozens of mosques in the UK.
On a recent trip to the Middle East, he and his father visited Madinah. In a local twist that pays tribute to the holy city’s famous date varieties including ajwa and ambar, Harris handed out dates to people in the courtyard of the Prophet’s Mosque. The “Cake not hate” campaign became “Dates not hate” for Saudi Arabia.
“He was greeted really, really warmly. There were some really touching moments where people were kissing his hands and his head. It was really lovely,” his father, Dan Harris, said.
Dan, the founder of global charity Neurodiversity in Business, said being in Madinah exposed him to the true diversity of Islam.
“We met people from all around the world. It was amazing. It’s like the United Nations there, you get people from different countries and it just goes to show you that the Muslim community, or the Ummah more generally, is not a homogeneous group,” he said.
“We saw people from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and it was really interesting for us.”
Dan said his visit to Madinah, considered the second holiest city in Islam after Makkah for Muslims, was “profound and life-changing.”
He added: “I would say it’s my favourite city in the world due to the peace and tranquillity I felt there.”
Dan added that he was very impressed by Saudi hospitality: “Everywhere we went, people were taking down my number and insisting that we come for dinner, insisting they pick us up from the location. They were extremely attentive to Joshie as well, making sure his needs were met. We felt a great sense of welcome, something Saudi Arabia is known for.”
