Our policy focus: protect patients
At the Partnership for Safe Medicines we advocate for policies that reduce patients' exposure to counterfeit medication. We believe that safety is paramount, and that no patient should ever have to wonder if the medicine they are dispensed is real. Cheaper medicine that comes with a worry about its safety is no medicine at all.
We hope you will join us in our advocacy for medicine safety. You can review our advocacy positions here.
Policy areas:
Protecting the supply chain
Drug importation
PSM believes the safety of the U.S. drug supply chain is built upon its closed, regulated nature. Canadian drug importation would undermine supply chain safety by involving vendors that cannot be regulated from overseas and by breaking track and trace systems enacted by the Drug Supply Chain Security Act.
Supply is also a problem. Historically, Canadians have opposed U.S. importation schemes because their supply chain is not large enough to supply U.S. patients in addition to their own.
The Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA)
As the DSCSA rolls out, PSM has an eagle eye on the tools that will help pharmacists safeguard the supply chain.
Online pharmacy-to-pharmacy marketplaces
Recent court cases show that pharmacy-to-pharmacy sales platforms have been a vehicle for diverted and counterfeit medications.
Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)
Systemic under-reimbursements have created financial pressures that make pharmacies targets of criminals selling black market drugs.
Educating Patients
Illegal online pharmacies
PSM seeks to educate Americans who falsely believe that all websites selling medicines are FDA- or state-regulated, when the truth is only 5% of online drug sellers meet U.S. regulations.
Non-FDA-approved medicines
PSM is educating Americans about the different safety profiles of compounded medicine, in particular compounded GLP-1s, and FDA-approved drugs.
Illegal ecommerce sales
PSM supports efforts to stop counterfeiters who use online market places sell fake, illicit and dangerous counterfeit medicines to unsuspecting Americans.
Improve international trade security
Unsafe and counterfeit medicines often make their way into the U.S. through international trade. Many of these products slip by customs via high-volume de minimus shipping, but packages declared as containing medicine are getting through, too: PSM's March 2025 report demonstrates that suspicious, unauthorized, and illegal ingredients for popular diabetes and obesity injectables make their way over the border despite U.S. laws forbidding them. PSM supports system reform to improve pharmaceutical border security.
Ending the fake pill trade
Illicit pill presses
PSM supports tightening regulations around the sale of pills presses, which criminals use it make fake drugs, including counterfeit prescription pills made with fentanyl and other deadly substances. Learn more.
Counterfeit pills on social media
PSM believes that social media need to be more proactive in blocking dangerous content and must be held accountable for ignoring the sale of deadly fake drugs on their platforms. Learn more.
Fentanyl analogues
PSM supports scheduling fentanyl analogues, a vital policy tool in the fight against deadly counterfeit medicines.
PSM continually tracks the latest in counterfeit drugs. Keep up with us via publications, news, Twitter and YouTube videos, and sign up for our weekly newsletter.