by Tod Cooperman, MD, President, PharmacyChecker.com, and Gabriel Levitt, Vice President, PharmacyChecker.com | Aug 5, 2011 | Online Pharmacies, Online Pharmacy Verification Services
In its July 2011 Progress Report, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) continues to do a disservice to Americans by classifying safe pharmacies in other countries as “rogue.” Out of the 8,000 sites “Not Recommended” by NABP, PharmacyChecker.com research shows 53 are safe international online pharmacies.
It is laudable and helpful to Americans when the NABP exposes truly rogue pharmacies, i.e., those that sell Americans fake drugs or even real drugs but without a prescription. However, the NABP has chosen, year after year, to lump in with these rogues, any pharmacy that is not based in the United States.
How can the NABP do this? Unfortunately, U.S. law says it is, under most circumstances, illegal for Americans to get their medicine from Canada or other countries. So NABP freely uses terms like “rogue,” “illicit,” and “illegal” when describing any foreign pharmacy. We see no reason to mislead the public into thinking that safe foreign pharmacies pose a danger and belong in the same group as rogue pharmacies. (more…)
Tagged with: Canada, foreign pharmacies, illegal, illicit, international online pharmacies, NABP, Not Recommended List, Pfizer, progress report, rogue, safety, United States
by Tod Cooperman, MD, President, PharmacyChecker.com, and Gabriel Levitt, Vice President, PharmacyChecker.com | Jan 7, 2011 | Drug Prices, Personal Drug Importation
With drug importation champion Senator Byron Dorgan’s departure from the Senate, advocates for lower drug prices were concerned that no one would step up to the plate. Raising the issue from the dead, in an interview yesterday with IowaPolitics.com, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who supported the Dorgan bill, has boldly picked up the torch unambiguously voicing his continuing support of the legislation to allow lower priced drug imports.
Senator Grassley’s frames the issue as follows:
“Giving American consumers access to imported prescription drugs would force pharmaceutical companies to re-evaluate this unfair pricing strategy and drive U.S. prices down. It’s a free-trade issue. American consumers are able to buy almost every other product available from other countries. The same should be true for prescription drugs.” (more…)
Tagged with: Dorgan, Drug Importation, generic drugs, Heath Care Act, IowaPolitics.com, lower prices, Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act of 2009, personal drug importation, pharmaceutical companies, Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act, prescriptions, Senator Chuck Grassley, Senator Herb Kohl, United States
by Tod Cooperman, MD, President, PharmacyChecker.com, and Gabriel Levitt, Vice President, PharmacyChecker.com | Sep 28, 2010 | Online Pharmacies
To remind our readers about the White House meeting on Wednesday, September 29th — where discussions will be held with leaders from ICANN and domain registrars to address the issue of online pharmacies and counterfeit drugs — we’re republishing the post of the letter we sent to ICANN stating our position.
September 13th, 2010
Mr. John O. Jeffery
General Counsel
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330
Marina del Rey, CA 90292-6601
RE: White House meeting to discuss online pharmacies
Dear John –
We are the president and vice president of PharmacyChecker.com, the leading online verification company for U.S. and international online pharmacies. We learned recently of the White House meeting scheduled for September 29th intended to focus on “voluntary protocols to address the illegal online sale of counterfeit non-controlled prescription medication” (the “Meeting”).
The broader legal and policy issues affecting whether and when ICANN and its members should accede to government requests to deny or cancel domain name registrations is a very serious one for the future of the internet, and is generally beyond our purview. Our purpose is to set out for you and your members some considerations that should affect your evaluation of whatever may be presented at the Meeting. We request that you make this letter available to all members invited to or attending the Meeting. The letter is necessarily in summary form, and we would be pleased to provide upon request additional information that may assist you. (more…)
Tagged with: domain registrars, FDA, ICANN, Meeting, NABP
