Behind Online Pharma - Blog Home
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Written by Andrew Schmid
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Tuesday, 24 March 2009 14:55 |
California’s 17KGET.com news site covered an interesting story this week about how a Bakersfield family blames their mother’s death on addiction to painkillers that she repeatedly re-ordered online without a prescription.
On Friday, police told Jerry Clearwater that his wife had died after losing control of her car and hitting a tree.
“I still can't believe that she's gone,'' he told reporters. ''I’ll never see my wife again.”
Although the corner's office said it could take eight to 10 weeks to determine if 44-year-old Laura Clearwater had drugs in her system at the time of the accident, Jerry Clearwater “blames the crash and his wife's death on her addiction to the prescription drugs she bought online.”
Clearwater said a doctor originally prescribed a muscle relaxer for a back injury his wife had suffered while skiing.
Six months later, with an expired prescription and apparently addicted, his wife “started ordering the muscle relaxer Soma from an online pharmacy called myrxbill.com,” Clearwater said.
She never saw a doctor and every week more pills arrived at the family’s doorstep
The president of LegitScript.com, a website recognized by the National Association, told 17KGET.com that he knows myrxbill.com and other sites tied to it are not legitimate online pharmacies.
''Ninety-nine percent of Internet pharmacies are not legitimate,'' John Horton said. “And a lot of Web sites, just like the one that it appears sold drugs to this woman, are nothing more than Internet drug pushers.”
Click here to see the LegitScript.com blog post on this story.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 01 April 2009 13:36 |
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News -
Enforcement and takedowns
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Written by Malia Politzer
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Thursday, 19 March 2009 11:33 |
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On Tuesday, the UN narcotics watchdog posted guidelines to governments on how to curb online pill pushing, as governments reported rising trends in prescription drug abuse.
According to officials at the International Narcotics Control Board , the global abuse and trafficking of prescription drugs now rivals and possibly exceeds that of cocaine, heroin and amphetamines.
Fighting the spread of prescription drug trafficking requires global collaboration between governments, said INCB Board Chief Hamid Ghodse. "Internet pharmacies can be accessed by anyone, anywhere who happens to be online. While efforts have been made at the national level, it is concerted, supportive international action that will make the difference," he said in a UN press release.
A few of the key provisions outlined in the guidelines include:
- Governments should require Internet service providers to shut down websites and domains of clients "engaged in illicit activity" as a part of their national licensing and registration process
- Internet service providers should be required by law to keep information about the identity of owners of IP addresses for at least a year.
- Wireless cafes and local area network providers should also be required to hold information on the identity of the customers using Internet services in order to assist criminal investigations.
- All packages shipped by international courier should be inspected by government officials. Governments should also make international postal services aware of the problem, and set up a process through which they can report suspicious packages.
- Governments should publish guidelines for doctors providing services over the internet, and policies that internet pharmacies are required to follow to ensure legitimacy.
- Governments should establish ways of sharing information on suspicious internet transactions with the governments of other countries and the INCB, to expedite international cooperation.
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Last Updated on Friday, 20 March 2009 13:31 |
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Enforcement and takedowns
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Written by Danielle Douglas
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Wednesday, 18 March 2009 14:57 |
The FBI seems to be doing a soft-shoe shuffle with the recent release of its public safety announcement on how to spot an illegal online pharmacy. The agency certainly gives a basic framework of the hazards of e-pharma: the proliferation of counterfeit or expired drugs and the lack of proper medical oversight. But where the FBI falls short is in detailing the illegality of rogue pharmacies and what is being done to stop them.
There is no mention of the Ryan Haight Act, which allows customers to know they are doing business with a trusted, legitimate pharmacy. Considering this bill goes into effect next month, promotion makes the most sense. The public should be made aware of the government’s efforts to address this issue.
While the bill primarily gives the DEA a bit more teeth to enforce rules around legal operation and distribution of controlled substances, both agencies will likely work in concert. “We work—and train—with federal investigators from our partner agencies. We also work closely with state and local law enforcement, and, because many illegal online pharmacies have global connections, we often coordinate with our overseas partners,” says the FBI.
The agency does mention one of its cases, where 18 people were indicted in August 2007 for operating an illegal online pharmacy that netted more than $126 million over a two-year period. Still, given the timing of the release it would have been wise to highlight one of the government’s more notable efforts to curb illegal prescription drug sales.
The most useful aspect of the FBI’s PSA is the how-to approach for buying legit drugs.
Legitimate pharmacies:
• Require a prescription from a licensed doctor, usually by mail (if they accept a fax copy, they will always call your doctor to verify the prescription)
• Make you submit a detailed medical history
• Clearly state their payment, privacy, and shipping fees on their sites; and
• Use secure or encrypted website connections for transactions.
The FBI notes that many legitimate online pharmacies are also certified by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, which posts a listing of legit sites on its website.
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Last Updated on Friday, 20 March 2009 13:32 |
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News -
Odds and ends
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Written by Marine Olivesi
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Wednesday, 11 March 2009 12:25 |
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The Associated Press reported yesterday that pharmaceutical giant Merck is buying Schering-Plough Corp. The merger will form the world’s second-largest prescription-drug maker, worth $47 billion in combined revenue in 2008. This comes six weeks after the largest drugmaker, Pfizer Inc., announced itself that it’s in the midst of acquiring Wyeth.
On NPR Morning edition today, Sean Nicholson from Cornell University said the move is an attempt to help big pharma regain firepower as they face multiple challenges, such as the imminent end of patent protection for the blockbuster drugs of the 1990s, a dearth of major new drugs coming out and the decrease of prescriptions in the US for the second consecutive quarter, a first "in recent memory,” Nicholson said.
That expensive drug sales drop in times of economic crisis make sense. What is unclear, however, is how much the online pharma business contributes to this trend. Arguably, buying drugs is not like buying a dress or an ipod. It is an not an expendable expense for cash-strapped customers... to a point. So, do people really by less drugs, or do they use more underground ways to get them?
If the latter is true, big mergers won't necessarily make big pharma better off. |
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