Quoted from NAPB--
National Association of Boards of Pharmacy® (NABP®) recently issued a report emphasizing the deceptive practices that illegal online drug sellers use to make consumers believe that they are legitimate, safe, and trustworthy. As detailed in the Internet Drug Outlet Identification Program Progress Report for State and Federal Regulators: July 2013 (PDF), NABP discovered numerous examples of Web sites falsely claiming to be accredited through the Association’s VIPPS® (Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice SitesCM) accreditation program, sites selling counterfeit versions of brand-name drugs, and sites claiming to be Canadian that dispense prescription drugs without any prescription and sell counterfeit versions of brand-name drugs.
NABP reviews and monitors Web sites selling prescription drugs to patients in the United States and its findings are also presented in the report released last week – of more than 10,000 Web sites analyzed, nearly 97% operate out of compliance with pharmacy laws and practice standards established to protect public health in the US and many other developed countries.
Consumers in the US tend to be particularly trusting of online drug sellers purporting to be Canadian pharmacies, many of which sell drugs that are neither approved by Health Canada nor legal to sell in Canada or the US. In the last quarter alone, NABP discovered a cluster of so-called Canadian “pharmacy” sites that also offer counterfeit versions of brand-name drugs and offer to dispense prescription drugs without any prescription. NABP’s findings are supported by a July 2013 report from the US Government Accountability Office on Internet pharmacies that stated, “Many rogue Internet pharmacies seek to take advantage of this perception [of safe drugs obtained at an affordable price] by purporting to be located in Canada, or sell drugs manufactured or approved for sale in Canada, when they are actually located elsewhere or selling drugs sourced from other countries.” Furthermore, some of the medicines being sold on these Web sites may be too strong, too weak, fake, expired, stolen, diluted, or impure.
To help consumers in the US find the safest sources for purchasing medicine online, NABP developed the VIPPS accreditation program. Consumers are encouraged to look for the VIPPS Seal on an accredited site and check NABP’s list of accredited sites on its consumer protection Web site,www.AWARErx.org. The Web site is part of the AWARxE® Consumer Protection Program, provided by NABP and the state boards of pharmacy to help educate the public about the risks of Internet drug outlets, and includes news, tips, and links to relevant NABP resources.
The full news release is available in the Newsroom section of the NABP Web site.
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