Anvisa bans irregular health products; listings persist online

By Priya Raman

Mercado Livre was still advertising Pygeum at a 48% discount one week after Anvisa prohibited the sale of irregular health products, and Shopee was also carrying the restricted items. Some of the live listings were running Black Friday promotions.

Two resolutions published last Friday in the Diário Oficial da União set out the prohibitions, and both took effect immediately. The continued presence of the products therefore created a direct mismatch between the rules and the marketplace pages.

What the platforms still showed

• Pygeum: The medicine was advertised "for the treatment of an enlarged prostate." Its Mercado Livre listing carried a 48% discount.
• Active Life: The supplement, based on type II collagen, turmeric and oyster calcium, appeared on both Mercado Livre and Shopee. The ads described it as "imported from the United States" and "indicated for joints."

The listings combined commercial claims, product information and promotional pricing. Active Life carried those elements across two marketplaces. The 48%-discount Pygeum offer on Mercado Livre supplied the clearest example. In both cases, shoppers could still encounter products that the resolutions had already prohibited.

Why Anvisa acted

Anvisa said it had found no evidence of sanitary approval for Active Life. The agency also identified labeling problems: information in English and therapeutic claims that Anvisa had not authorized.

Anvisa seized and prohibited every lot of six brands: Oficialfarma, Unicpharma, Bioformulas, Swanson, Recover Farma and Nutricost. The action also covered products sold without a brand.

The contrast matters for marketing and compliance teams. The Active Life case turns on one supplement's regulatory status, labeling and claims. The Pygeum measure reaches every lot of six named brands and the unbranded products. A review limited to one prominent listing would not capture the full scope of the latter action.

What does this change for online marketplaces and pharmacy platforms?

For Mercado Livre and Shopee, sellers and platform operators now face live offers after an immediate prohibition. Both platforms still showed the products, and some listings continued to use promotional pricing. The practical response is a rapid check of listings, inventory and promotions tied to Pygeum and Active Life.

Leaving those elements active would continue offering products that the two resolutions had already prohibited.

For brand and importer teams, the Active Life case puts two separate checks in front of them: regulatory status, and wording used on labels and in advertising. Anvisa cited English labeling and unauthorized therapeutic claims.

The ingredient list, United States origin statement and joint indication did not remove those cited issues. That makes claim review and label documentation part of one listing-control process rather than a separate creative review.

A separate gap sits beside the enforcement issue. Law No. 15.357/2026, in force since March 23, 2026, authorized pharmacies in supermarkets. It also provides for authorized pharmacies to contract digital platforms for medicine logistics and delivery.

More than seven months after the law took effect, no specific rules governed the operation of those platforms. The framework allowed pharmacy-platform contracts while leaving the operating model undefined. For supermarkets, licensed pharmacies, logistics companies and digital platforms, the absence limits clarity on service requirements.

The two gaps should not be confused. The immediate issue concerns products the platforms still offered after a ban took effect. The longer issue concerns the missing operating rules for pharmacy-platform delivery. One requires prompt listing cleanup; the other requires a detailed framework for platform services.

For marketplace operators, the next checkpoint is enforcement: prohibited products and their promotions must disappear even while detailed pharmacy-platform rules remain unsettled.