Posts Tagged ‘rogue pharmacies’
New Research Highlights Risks of Unlicensed Online Pharmacies
A new study
in the May 2013 Journal of Medical Internet Research illustrates just
how easy it is for fake online pharmacies to advertise via social media outlets
such as Facebook and Twitter.
Researcher Tim Mackey and co-author Dr. Bryan
Liang set up dummy, no-prescription-required pharmacy websites, then created
advertising for the dummy sites on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and
Google+. They found that in the 10
months that their fake ads were running, close to 3,000 unique visitors went to
the dummy sites in search of drugs that required no prescription. Surprisingly, though they had visits from all
over the globe, the highest percentage of web traffic to their fake sites (54%)
came from the United States.
New Internet Domain Name .PHARMACY Will Foster Patient Safety
In light of the threat of illegal online pharmacies, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) announced their application to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to own and operate a secure and vetted .PHARMACY domain for licensed Internet pharmacies.
The April 2013 report from the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) illustrates the patient safety threat from illegal online pharmacies by showing that of more than 10,000 Web sites they analyzed, nearly 97% operate out of compliance with pharmacy laws and practice standards established in the US. To combat that threat, they have announced their application to ICANN for .PHARMACY, which will be available only to legally operating online pharmacies, who follow the rules and regulations in the jurisdictions in which they are based.
[...]U.S. Attorney General Touches on Illegal Online Pharmacies in Speech
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently spoke about the dangers posed by illegal online pharmacies at an opiate abuse conference in Montpelier, Vermont. Holder spoke of the importance of supporting law enforcement agencies, giving them the tools they require to stop not only drug abuse, but illegal online pharmacies as well. Holder described the deployment…
[...]Two Sentenced To Prison for Illegal Online Pharmacy
Two men were recently sentenced to prison for their involvement in an illegal online pharmacy. Daniel L. Dailey’s company, PowerMedica, illegally sold steroids and human growth hormone to thousands of customers over the internet. Dailey, who admitted that the company didn’t require prescriptions or customers to be seen by doctors, was sentenced to 46 months…
[...]Unapproved Cancer Drug Sold Online Found to be Starch and Sugar
Distributor Sentenced to Prison A Canadian man was sentenced to 33 months in prison by an Arizona judge after pleading guilty to distributing counterfeit drugs earlier this year. Hazim Gaber had pleaded guilty to five counts of wire fraud in connection to selling a white powder he claimed was the experimental cancer drug dichloroacetate…
[...]Feds Crackdown on Online Pharmacies in Utah and Illinois
Federal authorities are beginning to crackdown on online pharmacies that distribute prescription drugs without prescriptions. Federal agents recently filed court papers in Illinois and Utah over two online pharmacies that are allegedly run by the same man, Kyle Rootsaert, according to CNN. The agents had obtained search warrant affidavits for the two pharmacies in Des…
[...]75% Increase in counterfeit drugs imported into Switzerland
The amount of counterfeit drugs arriving in Switzerland increased 75 percent in the first half of the year, according to health officials. The Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products (Swissmedic) said that it had received 992 reports of suspicious, potentially counterfeit drug imports from Federal Customs officials through the first half of 2010, according to SwissInfo.ch.…
[...]Man Given Four Years for Illegal Online Pharmacy
A federal judge recently sentenced a man to four years in prison for his part in operating an illegal online pharmacy that distributed anabolic steroids to a number of high-profile individuals. J. Michael Bennet, a pharmacist, was one of five people found guilty earlier this year of running the online pharmacy, called Applied Pharmacy Services…
[...]Web Company Accused of Registering Illegal Online Pharmacy Domain Names
A company that has registered 8 percent of the world’s website domain names has been accused of registering about one-third of all the world’s illegal online pharmacies’ websites. Critics are calling on Demand Media to end its registration of illegal online pharmacies, as well as saying it should stop some of its other controversial activities,…
[...]Illegal Online Pharmacies Still Selling Potentially Dangerous Acne Drug
A number of illegal online pharmacies are selling an acne-fighting drug that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pulled from the market last year. Accutane first appeared in the U.S. in 1982, but over the years it was revealed that the medication could cause a number of serious side effects including inflammatory bowel disease…
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