by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Aug 29, 2014 | Advocacy, Drug Prices, Online Pharmacies
In writing about the web domain company EasyDNS’ online pharmacy policy, Mike Masnick, founder of award-winning technology and business innovation blog Techdirt, makes the following observation:
“Fake and dangerous drugs from rogue pharmacies are a real (if relatively small) problem. Legitimate foreign pharmacies selling into the US at cheaper prices are a made up problem by US drug companies. But those US drug companies like to take the “small” problem, and blame it on any non-US pharmacy in an attempt to block out the competition.”
Thank you Mike for expressing that so clearly! The essence of TechDirt is to “analyze and offer insight into news stories about changes in government policy, technology and legal issues that affect companies’ ability to innovate and grow.” Innovation via the Internet has allowed consumers who can’t afford their medicine domestically to access it through foreign pharmacies. The pharmaceutical industry and its well-funded agents are getting away with murder by pressuring online “gatekeepers” such as domain registrars, search engines, and credit card companies to disallow service to pharmacies that American consumers have come to rely on.
To some in the public health community and in government, Mike’s expression of rogue online pharmacies as a “relatively small” problem” may come across as flippant and even naïve – but it cuts much deeper than that. The question is relative to what? If he means relative to the public health crisis of high drug prices in America then Mike is entirely correct: rogue online pharmacies are a small problem compared to high drug prices in America. Far more Americans are getting sick and/or dying because they can’t afford medication at home than they are from dangerous online pharmacy purchases.
That does not excuse the actions of rogue pharmacy websites that endanger the health of consumers. That’s precisely why EasyDNS’ decision to only provide service to online pharmacies if they are approved by LegitScript or PharmacyChecker is visionary. It does not let dangerous pharmacy websites exist, but it refuses to succumb to a protectionist, anti-consumer, big pharma initiative to snuff out innovative business models – safe international online pharmacy – that hinder their profit-making machine and grossly disadvantage consumers.
Rock on TechDirt!
Tagged with: LegitScript, Mike Masnick, pharmacychecker, rogue online pharmacies, Techdirt
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Aug 22, 2014 | Advocacy, Drug Safety, Internet Censorship, Online Pharmacies, Rogue Online Pharmacies
I’m writing this blog post to say thank you to a domain registrar called EasyDNS and its CEO, Mark Jeftovic, and to talk about what’s up with registrars and online pharmacies, as it could affect your online access to safe and affordable medication. EasyDNS’s new online pharmacy policy denies service to rogue online pharmacies but not safe online pharmacies. It will accomplish this policy by providing service to online pharmacies only if they are approved by LegitScript or PharmacyChecker.
In short, domain registrars are companies that help people obtain website names; names such as www.rxrights.org, www.doctorswithoutborders.org, www.WebMD.com, www.nytimes.com, etc. The most popular of these registrars in America is Go Daddy. If all registrars deny service to a person or a company, such as a rogue online pharmacy, then it cannot reach the public. If all registrars deny service to safe online pharmacies with very low drug prices then the public will not have access to them.
Our friends at RxRights gave a strong shout out to EasyDNS this week as well.
You might be thinking that this is no big deal. Who wouldn’t want to stop rogue pharmacy sites but allow safe, low-cost online pharmacies to operate? Well, earlier this year the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) sent letters out to 200 registrars telling them to take down websites that NABP doesn’t recommend. No matter how safe it might be, the NABP does not recommend any international online pharmacy that sells to Americans, instead unfairly calling them rogue sites.
Popular Internet freedom blog Techdirt published an article about NABP called, “Pharmacy Group Lies To Registrars: If We Complain About A Site, It Must Be Taken Down No Questions Asked.” It wrote: “The NABP is basically an organization designed to artificially inflate the price of drugs in the US, cynically using highly questionable claims to pretend that they’re focused on ‘public safety.’”
For the record, there is not a single reported death by a person who ordered from an international online pharmacy, ones that NABP calls “rogue,” that requires a valid prescription and fills orders through licensed pharmacies. The industry has been around for about fifteen years now. (more…)
Tagged with: Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies, EasyDNS, LegitScript, NABP, Registrars
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Aug 15, 2014 | Drug Prices, Drug Safety, FDA, Generic drugs, New Drugs
Most people think newer is better, but according to a study published in Health Affairs that might not be the case for prescription drugs. In short, the new study shows that drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after enactment of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act of 1992 (PDUFA), a bill that led to more expeditious drug approvals funded by drug companies, were more likely to have safety problems than ones approved before PDUFA. These findings are not only relevant to drug safety, but also to drug savings. Older drugs are often sold as generics and, thus, will have much lower co-payments than new drugs. For those paying out-of-pocket, the cost of a generic is often 80% less than the brand.
The study analyzed 748 drug approvals between 1975 and 2009. The approvals were of new molecular entities not for generic versions of existing brand-name drugs. Before PDUFA the chances that safety issues would arise involving approved new drugs was 21.2%; after PDUFA it increased to 26.7%.
According to the lead author, “The FDA needs to make sure drugs are safe before they’re approved, not rush to judgment in order to meet artificial deadlines.” Not surprisingly, FDA and the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America, take issue with the study. Their main points are that PDUFA helped speed up important drug approvals and get medications to patients faster and it improved the predictability of FDA’s system of drug approvals.
Regulations for marketing and manufacturing new drugs can save people and they can kill people. If the regulations are too rigid then patients won’t get needed medications fast enough. Or regulations can increase manufacturing costs resulting in unaffordable drug prices. If regulations are too weak then drugs will be less safe and effective. While in my opinion the study clearly has merit, PDUFA is helpful. Before its passage, drug approvals were lagging far behind other advanced economies in Europe.
Furthermore, the study does not show “causality,” meaning it does not prove that faster drug approvals after PDUFA led to less safer drugs. Nonetheless, it’s understandable that a drug with a long history of safe and effective use, accompanied by few side effects, is more trustworthy than a newly approved drug since the long term effects of the latter are unknown.
But what does this all mean for consumers and drug savings? (more…)
Tagged with: Atorvastatin, Brintellix, Crestor, Prozac, SSRI, Statin
