by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Apr 17, 2020 | FDA enforcement
Unbelievably, the FDA has increased seizures of international mail-order prescriptions over the past month.
Historically, far less than one percent of personal medicine imports are taken away by the FDA, despite the federal restrictions on importation. I only believe this to be the case if the exporting pharmacy requires a valid prescription. I don’t know if the FDA is more aggressive with rogue pharmacy actors than with legitimate pharmacies. I hope they are.
There are a few basic reasons why so many imports get through even when they may technically violate U.S. law:
First, enforcement discretion, through which the FDA can permit otherwise prohibited imports;
Second, political considerations, in that no administration wants to be viewed as taking away people’s medications, especially from older folks;
Third, the volume of imports being too great to handle with millions of packages coming in through international mail facilities;
and Fourth, in some instance the drug imports, as long as they are for personal use, could be deemed compliant with federal law.
(more…)
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Apr 8, 2020 | Drug Importation
The pharma-funded and industry opponents of drug importation from Canada just love to talk about how “even the Canadian government opposes importation.” For a quick clarification, Canada has not minded or stopped its pharmacies from safely dispensing medicines by mail to Americans. That’s personal drug importation. When I write that Canada opposes importation, I mean the wholesale drug importation currently proposed by the Trump administration.
Hey, if Canada doesn’t want this new policy, then what the hell can we do? As I see it, Pharma-funded groups, like the Partnership for Safe Medicines and Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies, have—almost gleefully— pointed out to the U.S. FDA that Canada is opposed to the implementation of Section 804 to allow registered wholesalers in the U.S. to import drugs from Canada. This is mainly due to Canada’s fear of drug shortages. Drug manufacturers supply Canada to meet the needs of its much smaller population. If Canadian wholesale drug exports increase substantially under the new Trump administration policy then it could exacerbate supply problems in Canada.
(more…)Tagged with: Horvath Health Policy, Scott Gottlieb, Stephen Salant
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Apr 3, 2020 | Drug Safety
When I read fancy-looking international reports that address the problem of counterfeit drugs, too seldom is our work recognized in verifying international online pharmacies in a manner that saves the lives of consumers looking online for affordable medicine. To some extent, that’s because the global pharmaceutical industry is often a major data source for these reports. But a joint effort between the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO)” recently recognized PharmacyChecker in a report on counterfeit drugs called “Illicit Trade: Trade in Counterfeit Pharmaceutical Products.” Under the sub-section “Online Pharmacy Authentication,” PharmacyChecker is mentioned as a free resource for consumers to identify trustworthy online pharmacies:
“PharmacyChecker is a free-to-consumer online service which produces reports on the credentials, prices and customer feedback of online pharmacies, focusing mainly on the United States and Canada. It is designed to help users identify reputable and trustworthy businesses. The site publishes a list containing the web addresses and business names of what it considers to be disreputable, dishonest and/or illegal online medicine trade sites.”
It should be clarified that, although our consumer advocacy and writing are focused on Americans, PharmacyChecker online pharmacy accreditation and pricing are there for global consumption.
(more…)Tagged with: Counterfeit Drugs
