Great hopes of physicians as well as patients are attached to stem cell and other cell-based therapies. Major progress is expected particularly in the areas of difficult-to-treat and chronic diseases. In order to prevent hope to be transformed into a “trade with hope”, it is important for authorities to monitor this new therapeutic area.

Special occasions should be celebrated appropriately: For some this means letting themselves go for a change, if necessary by taking various substances. However, not everyone wants to break the law and so you may come across products that are offered as a legal alternatives to other party drugs. At the same time, it is suggested by the suppliers that such products are completely harmless. Does "not prohibited" mean the same as "legal" and is this synonymous with "risk-free"?

Supposed natural products turn out to be counterfeit drugs.

In the past, "Poppers" have been defined as functional drugs by the Federal Office for Safety in Health Care (BASG). This classification was also confirmed in 2014 by a ruling of the Administrative Court (see below), whereby the provisions of the Medicines Act applied to the marketing of "Poppers". By a later decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ, see below) from the same year, the classification of "Poppers" as functional drugs was revoked and is therefore no longer applicable.

Shopping on the internet offers, in addition to seemingly unlimited choices and convenient time savings, one thing above all: anonymity. In particular, "sensitive" goods, such as sexual enhancers or lifestyle products, are often purchased via Internet retailers to avoid supposedly embarrassing moments at the doctor's or pharmacy. However, this means that one's own health is often (unknowingly) put at an incalculable risk.

European directives relating to medicinal products have to be transposed into national law by the member states. A certain flexibility of this transposition is aimed at the optimal implementation of European requirements into national standards in order to provide for global European interests such as high-quality health care. This relative “legislational freedom” often results in national legal differences, as for example the so-called “Eigenherstellung” or “Individual small scale contract production” of medicinal products by physicians. Which is not allowed in Austria but licit in some states of the European Union like the Federal Republic of Germany.

For the past few years informations concerning a substance called “GcMAF” have been circulating the internet. Several online sources denote GcMAF as harmless treatment for diverse illnesses, such as autism, different viral infections (HIV, Hepatitis B and C, influenza, etc.), chronic fatigue syndrome, autoimmune diseases (ALS, MS, etc.) and especially various cancers.