Well Done, NABP!

Last week, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) named 79 online pharmacies that are not safe for patients. Rather than a general “watch out” message, the NABP actually listed the web addresses for these rogue sources.

Kudos to for naming names! I hope the NABP has a good firewall to repel the disgruntled spammers.

According to NABP, a site got on the bad guy list for one of the following three illegal activities:

• Does not require a valid prescription (71 sites)
• Foreign or non-FDA-approved drugs (35 sites)
• A physical address outside of the US (36 sites)

NABP has accredited 15 legitimate online pharmacies though the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites™ (VIPPS^®) program. In contrast, the 79 non-recommended sites are non-accredited through the Fake Online Outlets League™ (FOOL^®) program. (NABP doesn’t seem to allow direct links. Go to NABP and click “Internet Pharmacies” to find the list.)

NOPE, NOT SCARE TACTICS

In this recent Drug Safety Hub post, Allen Coukell, Director of Policy and Strategic Communications for the Pew Charitable Trust-funded Prescription Project, implied that the dangers of counterfeiting were scare tactics. He asked: “If you were an uninsured patient unable to afford medication in the US, would you rather get your prescription filled in a Canadian pharmacy or go without?”

If those are the only choices, you should go without. Primum non nocere. (“First, do no harm.”)

I find it incredible that a health professional such as Mr. Coukell would encourage personal importation via an online pharmacy given the risks.

Judging by his biography, Allen appears to be a Canadian pharmacist by training. So he should know that many so-called Canadian pharmacies are not actually in Canada. In fact, twenty-two of the sites on the NABP list have “Canada” in the company name.

Let’s face it -- People often buy online from unscrupulous sellers to get access to drugs they shouldn’t be getting anyway. Just visit the pain pill addicts at www.drugbuyers.com. They’ll tell you how to buy anything online, no questions asked.

Organized criminals, drug traffickers and terrorists could (and probably do) exploit gaps in our drug distribution system. I wish it were only fear-mongering and scare tactics, but unfortunately the risks are real.

P.S. Happy 100th birthday, Ian Fleming!