The Public Policy
Of Rats and Meds
Online pharmacies can be poisonous.
Picture a typical morning. If you’re like me, you head into the kitchen, pour yourself a cup of coffee, scan the newspaper, and take your vitamins and prescription drugs. Imagine if, after washing down those pills with your coffee, you were to cough out a rat.
Sound far-fetched? It shouldn’t. That’s the storyline in a new commercial being aired in British movie theaters, alerting moviegoers to the very real fact that most online pharmacies sell counterfeit drugs. And counterfeits are sometimes laced with rat poison.
The hard-hitting advertisement, created by Pfizer in collaboration with several U.K. patient advocacy groups and Britain’s government drug regulator, is quite disgusting. But it’s an important message. And it’s a message that Americans, too, need to see. That’s why the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should join up with drug firms to launch a similar public awareness campaign here in the United States.
According to the World Health Organization, about 10 percent of the global drug supply is counterfeit. Many of these dangerous pills are sold online by fly-by-night pharmacies. Patients often go online to illegally purchase pills because they want to save money, skip the doctor, or get a drug for recreational use.
Counterfeit online outfits are very effective at hiding where they’re actually based. A few years ago, for instance, the FDA purchased several popular prescription drugs from an online pharmacy claiming to be headquartered in Canada. What they found was startling. Not only were none of the drugs manufactured in Canada, but they all failed to meet the FDA’s standards for purity and strength.
In 2007, the respected Internet fraud expert MarkMonitor looked at 3,160 online pharmacies claiming to sell legitimate drugs. Virtually all of the online pharmacies, though, were selling fake medicine. In fact, only four of the sites were accredited by Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites, the drug industry’s “Good Housekeeping” seal of approval.
So when customers get bilked after buying drugs online, regulators often can’t even determine the perpetrator’s physical location, making it effectively impossible to enforce existing drug safety laws.
What’s more, when compared to the United States, most nations are quite lax when it comes to drug safety. So even the drugs sold from legitimate online foreign pharmacies pose a health threat.
The European Union’s drug market, for instance, operates under a “parallel trade” ordinance, which allows for legal, unfettered importation between all member countries. Among other things, this means that the independent wholesalers along the chain of supply are allowed to open and repackage drug shipments before passing them along. So if American consumers go online and purchase drugs that have passed through the European Union, they could end up with a mislabeled, expired, or otherwise subpar product.
Online pharmacies based in Canada are largely supplied by European manufacturers — so their pills, too, can be dangerous.
It’s imperative that American patients be made aware of the dangers of making online drug purchases. The FDA can give them the information they need by following its British counterpart and launching a public awareness campaign.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (24) | Leave a comment
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Gary_Jackson| 2.5.09 @ 8:48AM
If the FDA really cared about the safety of drugs they would make it easier to get them. My family had the flu at Christmas. We needed a anti-vomit medicine. It's a simple request for a simple medicine, and we were too sick to go sit in a doctors office throwing up while we waited for someone to confirm we had the flu while charging several hundred bucks for the visit and then not giving us enough for the family. I got on line and bought what I needed. It came in the mail. I am HAPPY. WHY DO YOU NEED A DOCTORS VIST AND A PERCRPTION FOR SOMETHING SO DAM* SIMPLE!!!!!!
angryjake| 2.5.09 @ 9:20AM
Because common sense died a while back Gary. Liberals and lawyers leading the way. For a time, the contract with America congress took on some of this stuff. But the MSM leading the way said they were trying to make us less safe. The risk averse and over medicated anxiety saturated women of America freaked out, and that was that. With all apologies to the good sensible women out there, we must repeal women vote. The majority are simply hopeless.
Dustoff| 2.5.09 @ 10:40AM
Are you kidding Gary.
As a medic myself I know many doc's. They are so afraid of getting it trouble for giving out drugs you would not believe it. Thank you Gov & lawyers.
cdc| 2.5.09 @ 12:05PM
People are so over medicated these days with everything from antibiotices to vitamins that access to drugs does not seem to be a problem.
Alan Brooks| 2.5.09 @ 4:17PM
the socialist women in my family are so high on prozac and paxil they are like Edith Bunker hugging Archie.
Choey| 2.6.09 @ 2:08AM
I recently retired after 32 years of a job that required worldwide travel. I was (and still am) amazed at how easy it is to get drugs over the counter in foreign countries. In several instances when I became ill, I called my doctor and asked him what he would prescribe for the symptoms I had. I could then walk to the nearest pharmacy and buy them over the counter. It's obvious to me that drugs in the U.S. are seriously over regulated.
Andif you're in England, those over the counter codeine fizzies are the greatest hangover cure there is.
jaywhite| 2.6.09 @ 2:55AM
If the incredibly corrupt pharmaceutical companies weren't so greedy, their would be no need for desperate people to order drugs via the internet.
I could write 10 pages on corrupt practices that Pharmaceutical companies engage in. As soon as Pfizer was mentioned I knew the person who wrote this article , is probably connected with Big Pharm , the US and Int'l Pharmaceutical companies. He mentions drug purchased on the internet allegedly containing rat poison. The Pharmaceutical Industry poisons people every day. I know because I am a physician and have done research in the past so I recognize how corrupt medicine in the US has become due to the unlimited greed of Big Pharm. For example, in my specialty ,there are generic drugs available that might cost 50 cents a tablet which are actually better than newer $20 per tablet medications which were "developed" by Big Pharm with no generic version available. When Big Pharm sends out their detail people, to spread disinformation , they ignore a "minor" detail. The new drugs, unlike the older generic drugs, cause Diabetes as a side effect. But Drug reps act as if Diabetes was no more serious than the common cold. I mean what's the big deal about going blind, needing dialysis to live or having your limbs amputated? What proof is their that the poisons aka newer $20 /tab drugs are effective? The same companies that manufacture them, do the only research available. The Federal gov't has left the foxes to guard the hen house. Relying on "research" paid for by a company which has a strong vested interest, is like having a criminal on trial also presiding as the Judge in the court room.
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Henry H | 5.8.12 @ 8:20AM
Another case of big brother controlling what we can and cannot do, it's not about fake meds containing rat poison it's about the big pharma companies and their profits and the potential loss caused by the small man making himself a couple of bucks, out of all the websites selling ED meds I have found it's the small man who offers the best overall service, price, delivery times etc, these people really do care about their customers unlike the big companies who couldn't care less about us consumers, they just care for their share holders.kamagra