A U.S. Food and Drug Administration report issued this week, warning Americans that drugs sold on Canadian websites may be counterfeit, has caused a furor on both sides of the border.

No Americans have become sick from the drugs, or filed a complaint, Troy Harwood-Jones, president of the Manitoba International Pharmacists Association, told CTV News on Thursday.

"I think it is inappropriate of them to scare the public in the way that they have done without proper evidence," he said.

But the FDA argued it has proof. The agency said thousands of shipments of drugs from Manitoba-based Mediplan Prescription Plus Pharmacy, also known as Mediplan Global Health, have been tested.

Some shipments of the cholesterol drugs Lipitor and Crestor, the painkiller Celebrex, the blood-pressure treatment Diovan, the baldness treatment Propecia and five other prescription drugs contained extremely low doses, the FDA said.

"The actual threat being posed by these is not getting sick from the drug, but not getting better, said FDA Associate Commissioner Dr. Randall Lutter.

"In other words, if you take Lipitor ... at 40 grams and receive a lower quantity of the drug because it's counterfeit, then you are not going to get your cholesterol lowered in a manner the doctor recommends," he said.

That's also a concern in Canada, where drugs are being sold online.

Health Canada is "working closely with the RCMP, and both the RCMP and Health Canada have been discussing these issues with the FDA," said Health Canada spokesperson Nada El-Defrawy.

Andrew Strempler, who started the Winnipeg-based Mediplan Prescription Plus Pharmacy with Mark Rzepka in 2001, said the FDA's warning is more about politics than medicine.

The U.S. has been waging a war against cheap Canadian prescription drugs being sold to Americans for years, he said.

"The FDA hasn't contacted us or told us they had any concern regarding any specific product we were sending," said Strempler.

Strempler maintains that his drugs are safe, but he's voluntarily pulling the drugs cited on the FDA website until an investigation is complete.

Edward Hector a former employee of RxNorth, one of the online pharmacies owned by Strempler, said he'd filed a complaint with the FDA because drugs were being purchased by manufacturers overseas and prescription orders were being filled outside Canada.

"We were not to tell customers their medication was coming from the Bahamas," Hector said.

Strempler told The Canadian Press that drugs sold by his company are produced for Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, but wouldn't discuss where they ship from, saying that would provide the FDA with another way of targeting his company.

With a report by CTV's Jill Macyshon and The Canadian Press and The Associated Press