by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Feb 19, 2015 | Pharmacychecker Online Pharmacy Report
Correcting the Public Record about Online Pharmacies and Personal Drug Importation
In July of the 2013, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report about Internet Pharmacies with a focus on foreign websites that I believe strongly distorted the public record about buying medication online through personal drug importation. GAO’s report was submitted to Congress in response to Section 1127 of the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act, intended to protect the public health. I wrote a report to refute the GAO’s positions in order to correct the public record regarding the intersection of online pharmacies, personal drug importation, drug affordability and the public health. I believe that my report about online pharmacies proves that the GAO’s efforts fell very short in getting to the truth about buying medication online.
Americans buy lower cost and safe medication internationally, often online, and it benefits their health and financial well-being. If it were not for the option of personally importing lower cost medication, often using the Internet, many Americans would just not be able to get medical treatments they need. People who can’t take needed medication often get sick and may even die. The GAO report did not mention these facts.
The GAO seemed to conflate safe international online pharmacies with rogue online pharmacies in the same manner we’ve come to expect from the pharmaceutical industry, U.S. pharmacy trade associations and the FDA – by calling safe international online pharmacies “rogue.” The problem, for me, is that its lead author is not with the pharmaceutical industry, a U.S. pharmacy trade association, or the FDA. She is someone I’ve come to admire over the years just by following her work with GAO. So I can’t just say “look, it’s big Pharma again!” So for almost a year and a half I’ve written a report to, in part, prove to and remind myself that “we’re right and they’re wrong.” I’ve done that. I look forward to this report becoming a part of the public record.
Rogue online pharmacies, meaning drug-selling websites that are not safe (see my report for details), should be shutdown. Let’s get rid of them! However, if our elected leaders and regulators allow or enact policies to bring about an end to online access by Americans to safe and affordable medication and people get hurt, then they can’t say they didn’t know.
Below, I’ve pasted the cover letter from Tod Cooperman, MD, president of PharmacyChecker.com, and I that accompanied the hardcopy of the report we sent the congressional committees that received the GAO’s report in 2013. Each week we’ll be commenting on and posting the different sections of my report. To read the report now, visit “Online Pharmacies, Personal Drug Importation and Public Health”.
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Tagged with: GAO, Internet pharmacies, personal drug importation, public health, rogue online pharmacies
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Feb 13, 2015 | Advocacy, Drug Safety, Online Pharmacy Verification Services
When it comes to prescription drugs and the public health, safety and affordability have to be considered together. People are at risk if they obtain medication that doesn’t work because it’s counterfeit, adulterated or substandard. At the same time, a perfectly safe and effective prescription drug will not help someone who cannot afford it. We help protect the public health by obtaining, verifying and providing information about online pharmacies and prescription drug prices that consumers can use to help maximize access to safe and affordable medication.
As we’ve said time and again, the key is to stay away from rogue online pharmacies by sticking with pharmacy sites publishing a valid PharmacyChecker.com seal, or accreditations from the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites program or LegitScript. Many members, but not all, of the Canadian International Pharmacy Association are verified by PharmacyChecker.com as well.
For healthcare providers and consumers looking to understand who we are, what we do, and how to use our information, we publish “Protecting the Public Health: Verifying Pharmacy Websites to Help Consumers Find Affordable Medication and Avoid Rogue Online Pharmacies.”
For those interested in more specifics on our online pharmacy safety policies, requirements and standards please see our detailed guidance document about our verification program.
We welcome your questions or comments about our programs and policies: info@pharmacychecker.com.
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Jan 30, 2015 | Drug Prices, Healthcare Reform, Medication non-adherence, Skipping medications
This will not be major headline news anytime soon but it’s true. Last week our friends at RxRights blogged about new data from the Commonwealth Fund showing that the number of Americans ages 19-64 who did not fill prescriptions due to cost decreased to a depressing 35 million in 2014 from the even more depressing figure of 50 million in 2012. Obamacare, lower unemployment, and a stronger economy in which people feel more secure paying for even very expensive medications are largely responsible. Minus the very expensive medications – that’s all good stuff.
And how about international online pharmacies and personal drug importation? Well, just yesterday the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that about 2% of Americans are still buying medication from foreign countries. That’s about 5 million Americans who would potentially go without needed medication if it were not for lower cost foreign medication sold by safe international online pharmacies.
I did not use the word “potentially” loosely. Some of those five million are getting nabbed by rogue online pharmacies, resulting in too many Americans taking substandard, adulterated, or counterfeit medications. If those people are informed properly they will not be victims. PharmacyChecker.com is there for you: if you are one of the 35 million Americans wondering whether you can afford that medication prescribed by your doctor, we’re doing better than ever at empowering you with information that helps you get the medications you need at a price you can afford while steering clear of rogue online pharmacies.
It’s important to remember how dangerous it is to not take the medications you need. One expert at CDC stated: “People who do not take their medication as prescribed have more hospitalizations, emergency room visits and an increased burden of their illness.”
It’s important to note that the CDC report provided lower figures on how many Americans are going without prescribed medications due to cost than the Commonwealth Fund reported: about one in 10. We’re going to look at the data in the coming weeks and provide you some guidance on this discrepancy. But clearly the overall numbers have gotten better in the last two years.
We thrive on these better numbers – more consumers accessing the healthcare they need –but with tens of millions of Americans saying they can’t afford their meds there’s so much more work to be done!
Tagged with: CDC, Commonwealth Fund
