WARNINING!!!! --- ONLINE PHARMACIES CAN BE DANGEROUS TO
YOUR HEALTH
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Sunday, July 4, 2004 A Hard Dose Customers of online
pharmacies are warned of scams involving fake or
harmful drugs
By M. Paul Jackson JOURNAL REPORTER
Kristi Vlahos, a pharmacist at the Jonestown Pharmacy in Winston-
Salem, is used to seeing scams come across her counter.
The last one, an advertisement faxed to her pharmacy,
advertised a birth-control patch. The patch, which is worn
on a patients' body, functions much like a birth-control
pill and can control a woman's ovulation cycle.
But if a patient orders the medication - available over the
Internet from an offshore drug retailer - the package
usually contains no medication, leaving patients tricked
into buying a worthless product, Vlahos said.
"You have to be absolutely positive" about ordering drugs
online, she said. "Anybody can make a Web site and send out
a bunch of spam."
Vlahos isn't the only person warning customers about online
drug scams.
As more and more consumers turn to the Internet to do their
shopping, a host of online pharmaceutical scams are leaving
more patients at risk of receiving possibly dangerous drugs,
officials say.
According to the U.S. General Accounting Office, drugs
bought online from other countries - including Argentina,
Spain, Thailand, Pakistan and Turkey - are more likely to
contain harmful substances or inadequate instructions than
those purchased in the United States or Canada. Last month,
the GAO released a study about online drug sales.
Kristi Vlahos' husband Ike, a co-owner of the pharmacy,
agreed. Internet scams "are all over the place," he said.
"It's a risk out there that people don't really realize."
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has begun
sending informational fliers to drugstores, warning
customers that the drugs they purchase online might be fake
or have dangerous side effects. Vlahos received her warning
fliers about a month ago, she said.
Online pharmaceutical shopping is nothing new. Customers
began turning to the Internet for drugs in the late 1990s.
The service allows customers to shop virtually around the
clock and easily compare prices from multiple outlets.
Because online drugstores have less overhead, prices are
typically cheaper.
About 9 million people bought or refilled a drug
prescription over the Internet last year, according to
Manhattan Research, a health-care marketing research company
in New York. Overall, about 26 million people used the
Internet for drug information in 2003, more than double the
amount that did so in 2002, according to the company.
Some online-dedicated companies do charge less than the
national drug outlets' online service.
CVS.com, the drug retailer's online service, sells a 20-mg
bottle of Cialis for about $66 for 6 tablets - about $11
a pill. In contrast, Cutprice12.com, an online drug
retailer, sells the same drug for about $9
Similarly, Eckerd.com offers a 25-mg prescription of Vioxx,
a popular medication for arthritis, for about $268 for 100
pills. Cutprice12.com offers 120 pills for about $150,
according to the site.
Cutprice12.com, whose ads can frequently show up in a
consumer's e-mail inbox, does not require a prescription
from a doctor.
Under federal law, it is illegal to dispense prescription
drugs without a valid prescription and to ship drugs that
are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration
In the GAO study, federal officials ordered about 11
drugs from 68 Web sites, including overseas, U.S. and
Canadian sites.
About 24 national and 21 foreign Web sites did not require
prescriptions, and none of the foreign sites included
pharmacy labels instructing customers about proper use of
their medications, according to the agency. About six orders
were never even received despite prepayment.
"It's a 'buyer beware' situation," said David Work, the
executive director of the N.C. Board of Pharmacy, which
investigates cases of online drug fraud.
"As people get more and more comfortable on the Internet,
this kind of thing could increase,"he said. "I don't
think the public realizes how much they depend on
prescription drugs."
Others agreed. Mike Blankenship, a pharmacist at Andrews
Pharmacy in Winston-Salem, said that some consumers can be
tricked into ordering products that contain no medication,
such as a scam involving Lipitor, a drug for managing
cholesterol. For many patients, buying drugs online is
similar to using tobacco, Blankenship said. "They know it's
not the absolute best thing in the world, but they're using
it anyway."
To be sure, online-pharmacy companies do represent growing
competition for the traditional brick-and-mortar pharmacy.
Apart from lower prices, buying drugs online is also
convenient, especially for patients in rural areas who may
have limited access to pharmacies, said Erika Fishman, a
company senior analyst for Manhattan Research.
Online sales are increasing "because consumers are taking
advantage of international markets," Fishman said.
Ironically, those are the markets that seem to be scamming
customers the most. Joyce Tipton, the assistant director of
pharmacy for Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center,
said that some online drugstores are legitimate, but she
warned consumers that many others are not.
"There's no guarantee they may be getting the real
drug," she said.
The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy maintains a
certified list of licensed pharmacies, called the Verified
Internet Pharmacies List, that legally sell drugs online.
That list is available on the association's Web site.
Work also suggested that the federal government begin
to punish shipping companies who willingly deliver
illegal drugs.
But if the online drugs are cheaper, can the industry expect
a halt to the practice? Work says no.
He acknowledged that shoppers can save money online, but
cautioned that the savings are not worth the risk.
"We're approaching this from a health and safety issue," he
said, "and in this case, it is definitely a safety issue."
M. Paul Jackson can be reached at 727-7473 or at
[email hidden]
[email hidden] (Terry Polevoy) wrote in message
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