36 Million Americans Have Bought Rx’s From Illegal Online Pharmacies

Tens of millions of Americans have bought medications online without a prescription, according to a new study.


Alaric DeArment in Drug Store News writes about a study funded by the Alliance for Save Online Pharmacies and released by The Partnership at DrugFree.org, which finds that illegal online pharmacies have sold drugs to 36 million Americans.

According to the Drug Store News story:

• Many independent and chain retail pharmacies operate websites and there also are reputable online pharmacies, such as Drugstore.com. However, a number of illegal online pharmacies also exist, and buying drugs from them opens consumers to the risk of taking counterfeit, adulterated or unapproved medications.

• “Those who sell prescription drugs online without a valid prescription are operating illegally, undercutting the laws that were put in place to protect patients, and are thereby endangering the public health,” U.S. intellectual property enforcement coordinator Victoria Espinel said. “It is a real wake-up call that so many Americans have engaged in this dangerous behavior.”

• At the White House Intellectual Property Health and Safety Forum on Tuesday, Espinel said 11 companies had joined to create a nonprofit group designed to target illegal online pharmacies, including American Express, Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, eNom, Google, Microsoft, Neustar, Network Solutions, Yahoo! and Go Daddy.

The purchase of drugs from illegal online sites is a dangerous practice that impacts the health and safety of entire consumer populations.

With these illegal purchases, the consumer is potentially bringing dangerous fakes into the legitimate supply chain. It is critical that all members of the legitimate pharmaceutical supply chain take measures to protect themselves from these dangerous sources of supply.

To read the Drug Store News story, visit: http://www.drugstorenews.com/article/companies-band-together-end-illegal-online-pharmacies

To learn more about anti-counterfeiting technologies, visit: http://www.xstreamsystems.net/