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/

Veterinarians Warn of Fake Online Medications

The Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) has warned medications purchased over the internet could be counterfeited drugs.

According to a report by ABC News, the AVA believes the trade in internet drugs for animals is growing as farmers try to contain costs:

• AVA president Dr Barry Smyth says livestock producers need to be particularly careful with what they buy.

• "We know that somewhere between 5 and 10 per cent of these products are counterfeit and not what they're supposed to be so there's a real danger you may not be getting what you're paying for," he said.

• "For people in the livestock industries they need to be very careful what they treat their animals with, because of residues in animal products."

The danger of fraudulent, adulterated, sub-standard and counterfeit drugs are everywhere but seem to proliferated online via the internet.

All pharmaceutical supply chain experts agree, never purchase pharmaceuticals online via sources that are not directly connected to an actual, legitimate pharmacy and/or does not require a physician or in this case veterinarian’s prescription.

To read the ABC News story, visit: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/05/3057896.htm

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

Bing Hosting Spam Ads for Counterfeit Drugs

MxLogic.com on August 6, 2009 reported that Microsoft's Bing search engine hosts sponsored ads for online pharmacies of the type that generate spam to sell drugs illegally, according to a report from LegitScript.com, an online pharmacy verification service, and KnujOn.com, an internet compliance company.

• The websites issued a report saying that an analysis of sponsored search results for internet pharmacies displayed on bing.com turned up ads that were nearly 90 percent for spam internet pharmacies that could be connected to organized crime.


• KnujOn, an anti-spam company that says it has removed over 100,000 spam websites from the web, said the spam pharmacy sites are typically connected "organized crime and vast illicit drug networks, many of them based in Russia and Eastern Europe."

XStream encourages all to only buy prescriptions from known and licensed pharmacies. The only type of internet purchasing of pharmaceuticals should be with pharmacies that have regular “brick and mortar” licensed pharmacies in your area. If any pharmacy does not require a prescription from your physician it is likely to be unlicensed and the medication that it sells you counterfeit or adulterated material.

To view the MxLogic.com report visit: http://www.mxlogic.com/securitynews/spam/bing-hosting-spam-ads-for-counterfeit-drugs405.cfm

Government Agencies Guiding Pharmacists to Dispense Information on Counterfeit Drugs

Counterfeit drugs within the mainstream supply chain have become so prevalent that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), leading regulatory agencies within the United Kingdom, are guiding pharmacists to distribute information on the dangers of counterfeit drugs with the prescriptions that they dispense to all of their patients.

This is a cautionary story for all developed countries, including the United States that the issue of counterfeit medications invading its safe and ethical supply channels is coming your way.

Until now many, including leading pharmaceutical industry experts, have considered it remote that a developed country could and would be infiltrated by the scourge of counterfeit medications.

Patients to get counterfeit warning with each prescription
Tuesday , March 31, 2009

New guidance to patients to raise public awareness of fake medicine and its dangers has been launched by the RPSGB and MHRA.

Pharmacies nationwide will receive the guidance, which has been developed in conjunction with patient groups to ensure it is clear and easy to read. Pharmacies will be asked to distribute the new double-sided postcard-sized leaflet to patients in their prescription bags.

The leaflet offers advice to patients about what counterfeit medicine are, how to minimise purchasing fakes and what to do if they suspect they have been sold or supplied counterfeits.

One side of the postcard explains the safest way to purchase medicines and the other outlines 'The dangers of faking it'.

The RPSGB's head of practice Heidi Wright says: "Counterfeit medicine does not work and can make you seriously ill. It's important that people are aware that they should always get their medicine from a reputable source such as a pharmacist or a registered online pharmacy site which has the RPSGB's Internet Pharmacy Logo - and I hope these postcards will help to achieve that."

The MHRA is also looking at ways to target those that use the internet to buy counterfeit medicine.

Guidance for pharmacists explains the background to counterfeit medicine production and highlights how organised criminal gangs have become involved in the production of illegal medicines, supplying them through the internet, often to unwitting patients.

It offers pharmacists invaluable practical advice on the correct steps to take when they encounter suspected counterfeit medicines. These steps include reporting illegal websites to the MHRA to ensure immediate patient safety.

pharmafocus.com

Slim to None Chance for Unsuspecting Prescription Purchaser

A young British woman tragically died one day after starting a diet prescription she purchased online. Self-conscious about her weight she turned to the same destination many consumers with embarrassing conditions do – the internet pharmacy.

The lure of the internet pharmacy is anonymity... But, that is its danger also! These online stores do not always follow the same regulations and precautions as the brick and mortar drug stores do. They often do not require prescriptions or ask for current medications, and sometimes, as in this case, sell banned or unapproved medications.

A report by The European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines (EAASM) stated that three out of five drugs purchased online are fakes and consumers were putting their health at risk when using them. Other disturbing statistics disclosed were:

• 95.6% of online pharmacies researched are operating illegally.
• 94% of websites do not have a named, verifiable pharmacist.
• Over 90% of websites supply prescription-only medicines without a prescription.
• 86% of online 'pharmacy approval' stamps are fake.

In this particular case, young 26-year-old Selena Walrond, from Croydon in South London was just looking for a slimmer version of herself. From a Chinese website she purchase DNP or dinitrophenol, a fat burning chemical which boast an increase of 50% in metabolic rate which can result in a 10 – 12 pound weight loss in just 8 days. The following day, Selena was found with a racing pulse and feverish. She was rushed to the hospital by her mother and died of cardiac arrest.

DNP is as dangerous as it is effective – making it one of the first drugs to be banned in the U.S. by The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) back in 1938 and it has never been approved in the United Kingdom (UK). The drugs side effects include sweats, insomnia, cataracts, and death.

Beware -- sometimes when a deal sounds too good to be true, it is and the costs can be more than you even imagined…..