Consumers Report Says “Don’t Risk” Buying Meds from Foreign Online Sources
A national poll by Consumer Reports National Research Center says that though Americans are suffering from recession, buying medicines at discounted rates from so-called online pharmacies is a bad idea because the risk of counterfeit medicines is so great. Says Consumer Reports (CR), “ordering from foreign websites should be avoided altogether.”
CR discovered that only a fraction of online pharmacies are legitimate, and their medical consultants recommend avoiding any foreign website for medicine purchase.
Says CR, “Given the high risk of ordering medication from foreign websites, stick with well-known websites, walk-in pharmacies, and pharmacy chains in the U.S. To save money, switch to generics whenever possible, look for discount programs, and ask your doctor or pharmacist about other ways to reduce your costs.”
Of more than 8,300 online pharmacies reviewed by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP), only 3% of online pharmacies are legitimate. The rest are “rogue operations” that don’t require valid prescriptions, offer unapproved drugs, are physically located outside the US or have servers located in foreign countries.
“The problem with websites selling medication from other countries is that there’s no way to ensure their safety or legitimacy. The FDA doesn’t have the authority to regulate foreign versions of medicine purchased by people over the Internet, so their ingredients might be unknown,” states CR.
For Americans seeking cheaper drugs in Canada, says Carmen Catizone, NABP’s executive director, “Many of the Canadian sites aren’t Canadian at all.”
Though there are legitimate online Canadian pharmacies regulated by Health Canada, a government agency like the FDA, those pharmacies that ship prescription medication to the U.S. aren’t subject to Canadian regulations. Even Health Canada warns Canadians about the risks of purchasing counterfeit medications from online sources, reports CR.
Said Ilisa Bernstein, Deputy Director at the Office of Compliance for the FDA, “I think it is safe to say that when you buy over the Internet there is a chance that you are going to get a substandard or counterfeit drug. There is little oversight of the global online drug marketplace.”
Recent studies have shown that in the majority of cases, medicines purchased online have failed in authenticity testing, either by containing the wrong quantity of ingredients, the wrong ingredients, or by sending so-called substitute medications for the medicine ordered. Websites will say that they have generic versions of name-brand medications like Nexium and Lipitor, but there are no FDA approved generic versions of this medications at this time. Therefore anything purchased is an unknown, unverifiable medication.
CR gives the following guidelines for purchasing medications safely on the internet:
1. Use only online pharmacies associated with legitimate walk-in stores in the U.S.
2. Check with Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) a voluntary program the NABP set up in 1999 to certify internet pharmacies meet U.S. criteria: they can dispense only FDA-approved medication; prescriptions they fill must be the result of a doctor-patient relationship; and they must list their physical location.
3. LegitScript.com uses NABP standards to assess drugstores that don’t participate in VIPPS.
4. Make sure the online pharmacy is registered to do business in your state.
5. If you’re still unsure, NABP lists sites it doesn’t recommend, which can be found here.
6. Your best resource is a trusted pharmacist or pharmacy distribution program.
Although rare, counterfeit drugs have been found in the U.S. supply chain.