by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Sep 4, 2015 | Advocacy, Government
While PharmacyChecker.com is not taking sides in the presidential election, last Saturday, the Huffington Post published an op-ed by presidential candidate Bernie Sanders entitled “High Drug Prices Are Killing Americans” that we agree with. Senator Sanders believes that the U.S. government should make it easier for Americans to import lower cost medications from other countries. He writes: “Americans should be able to do this online or by mail, provided they have the proper prescription from a physician.” Polls show that most Americans feel the same way.
In contrast, John Horton, the founder of LegitScript.com, was busy this week trying to achieve the opposite – keeping the U.S. a captive drug market by scaring Americans away from safe and affordable international online pharmacies. Mr. Horton appeared to gleefully report that a safe international online pharmacy operated from Canada, TotalCareMart.com, was “ordered to be shut down” by the College of Pharmacy in Manitoba. As usual, however, Mr. Horton misrepresented the facts, skipping details that are important to consumers.
TotalCareMart.com, as it notes on its website, “is not itself a pharmacy, but a prescription referral service.” It refers orders to licensed pharmacies in Canada and other countries, and helps Americans fill their prescriptions at lower cost. We know this is true because PharmacyChecker verifies the licenses of the pharmacies TotalCareMart.com uses. So what’s the current fuss about?
According to an article in CBC News, the College of Pharmacists in Manitoba recently sent TotalCareMart.com a letter to discontinue its marketing efforts, accusing the website of “suggesting” that – in its print advertising in the U.S. – it is a Canadian pharmacy, rather than a prescription referral service, through which orders placed online are filled in Canadian and other pharmacies. If that’s the case, we would agree that any such advertising should be clearer. As noted above, on its website, TotalCareMart.com appears to accurately describe itself. Another complaint is that the website advertises certain popular brand name medications (Zetia, Benicar, and Lexapro) using their U.S. names, when, in Canada, these medications are sold under different names, which may violate Canadian prescription drug marketing laws – even though TotalCareMart.com does not market those products to Canadians. From the perspective of an American consumer this would not seem to be a concern.
The regulatory and legal issues at hand are technical and involve the definition of a “pharmacy,” marketing laws, and potentially conflicting legal jurisdictions. But the bottom line is that TotalCareMart.com is a safe international online pharmacy and the regulatory actions described above do not remotely show otherwise.
In addition to the spin on the CBC news story, Mr. Horton took the opportunity to continue his incessant campaign of trying to embarrass and disparage PharmacyChecker.com, so I will address his “concerns.”
LegitScript published a screenshot of PharmacyChecker’s seal profile for TotalCareMart.com. Due to an administrative glitch (about which we are embarrassed, but have corrected) the profile read “last verified’ in 11/21/2011, but rest assured that our last regularly scheduled verification was on 8/12/2015. The pharmacy in Canada which TotalCareMart.com uses, Westview Pharmacy, continues to be licensed by the Manitoba College of Pharmacists — the same regulator that sent the letter to TotalCareMart.com: you can check the license yourself [type in “Westview” and hit search].
Mr. Horton also criticizes our policy of not always publishing the names of the bricks-and-mortar pharmacies through which international online pharmacies fill orders. We do this for a very good reason, one that benefits consumers: Pharmaceutical companies have a history of cutting supplies to pharmacies outside the U.S. that sell their products at lower prices to Americans! We don’t want drug companies to stop consumers from getting prescribed medications at lower cost. What’s funny, however, is that LegitScript has made a big deal about “outing” the name of a pharmacy we kept confidential only to discover that it’s a licensed pharmacy in Canada. Thanks!
We agree that online pharmacies (and big multinational pharmaceutical companies) should be truthful and as transparent as possible about what they do and how they portray themselves. That’s why, for over 10 years, PharmacyChecker.com has required Canadian online pharmacies to disclose the countries in which they partner with local pharmacies and they must identify the specific pharmacies to us. We then verify the licenses of these pharmacies before an online pharmacy can be a member of our Verification Program. If you look at our site, you’ll notice we list the countries to which an online pharmacy refers orders. We’re not sure what Mr. Horton is talking about when he writes that we “concede” that “other verified dispensing pharmacies” used by TotalDrugMart.com are in “New Zealand, Turkey, Singapore, Canada, United Kingdom and New Zealand” – referring to the information PharmacyChecker.com publishes in TotalDrugMart.com’s Seal Profile. Thank you, Mr. Horton, for finally saying what you know: we don’t help online pharmacies pretend they are “Canadian” but provide information to consumers so that they know what’s up. For newcomers to this issue: we have a blog post that will be very instructive: “So you Want to Buy Cheap Medicine From an Actual Canadian Pharmacy?”
Mr. Horton loves to highlight that a very small number of mostly U.S. online pharmacies, which were once approved in our program, were found or accused of selling controlled drugs without valid prescriptions. What he fails to mention is that most were not in our program at the time that they were charged and none has been in our program for years (since 2010). Yes, licensed pharmacies and pharmacists (and big pharmaceutical companies) break the rules sometimes, on and offline – and they need to pay the consequences commensurate with the harm they have done. But which pharmacy seems to have the worst track record of fueling the addiction epidemic? I believe that award goes to none other than LegitScript-approved Walgreens! Walgreens had to pay $80 million in 2013 to make charges go away that it illegally sold controlled drugs, including opiate-based medications into the black market. [This is not to disparage the thousands of good people and pharmacists who work for Walgreens but to show LegitScript’s hypocrisy.]
Prescription drug abuse is a serious problem and no laughing matter. The sad truth is that of the of 41,340 annual deadly drug overdoses, 22,810 were caused by legal, often highly addictive opiate-based, pharmaceuticals. It’s a serious epidemic, and while vigilance and enforcement are critical, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the Internet causes a tiny fraction of the problem. Our program excludes international online pharmacies that sell controlled drugs into the U.S. at all.
Seriously and sadly, if the FDA and/or Canadian regulators decide to, they can probably figure out a way to shut down the safest international online pharmacies. Of course, that may lead Americans seeking affordable medication into a minefield of rogue online pharmacies (over 30,000 according to LegitScript). Is that really what Mr. Horton wants? But, as I have written before, and shared with elected leaders, shutting down safe international online pharmacies is bad for public health.
Our 12 years of publishing online pharmacy verification and pricing information, and my advocacy, has made PharmacyChecker.com a prime target of Pharma-front groups and their lobbyists. They have misled journalists to believe all kinds of misinformation. They also point out that PharmacyChecker.com is a business not a non-profit group — and about that they are correct: We are proud to have started and to run a small American business that, unlike LegitScript, doesn’t rely on taxpayer’s money ($5.2 million) or mislead Americans. PharmacyChecker helps Americans find information about the most affordable and safe online pharmacy options. As Senator Sanders says, “High Drug Prices Are Killing Americans” and we’re glad to be part of the solution, not the problem.
Tagged with: LegitScript, manitoba college of pharmacists, totalcaremart
by Tod Cooperman, MD, President, PharmacyChecker.com, and Gabriel Levitt, Vice President, PharmacyChecker.com | Aug 22, 2015 | Advocacy, Government, Internet Censorship, Pharmaceutical Industry
A paid “news release” this week by the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies (ASOP) and LegitScript and widely disseminated by PR Newswire’s MultiView – deceitfully and incorrectly associated PharmacyChecker.com with a federal indictment involving the wholesale operations of a Canadian company. [UPDATE: After PR Newswire was informed by our attorneys of the libelous nature of the ASOP/LegitScript news release, PR Newswire removed it. The release had appeared at http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7602051-asop-doj-indictment-prescription-drugs/ ]
A former consultant to PharmacyChecker.com was, unfortunately, swept up in this indictment for an action having nothing to do with his work with PharmacyChecker.com (see our posting about the indictment) [UPDATE: The charges against this individual were dismissed on October 20].
But even though PharmacyChecker, nor any of its executives or employees, are the subject of the recent indictment or even mentioned in it, ASOP and LegitScript, who we see as sharks for Big Pharma and Big Pharmacy, could not resist throwing a public relations party, which we believe is aimed at manipulating the media and reporters, government, and worse – consumers! It appears that they spent a lot of money on a PR firm, ECI Communications, to put together and disseminate lies about PharmacyChecker.com and misleading information about international online pharmacies.
Want proof? After reading ASOP and LegitScript’s deceitfully misleading news release, a writer at the publication Medicine Marketing & Media was apparently duped into writing on Wednesday that PharmacyChecker was being indicted! After we contacted that publication about the inaccuracy, we were swiftly given an apology, the article was corrected, and the following statement posted: “CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed PharmacyChecker.com as a defendant. PharmacyChecker.com is not a defendant in the case.
A renowned expert in First Amendment Law considers the news release “libelous” and ASOP, LegitScript, and ECI have been asked to take it down. PR Newswire has also been asked to remove it, as it appears to violate PR Newswire’s own guidelines regarding libelous content and this certainly doesn’t help their existing reputation for distributing “low quality content.” However, perhaps due to the enormous funding behind these groups, they have yet to make any attempt to correct the situation. We’ll see how much they care about the truth by their actions.
It’s important to keep in mind who these groups are. ASOP’s members and funders include large pharmaceutical companies and the National Association of Chain Drugstores. To protect their bottom lines, these companies and ASOP lobby congress and federal agencies, such as the FDA, to try to curtail your access to much more affordable and safe medication from outside the U.S. In fact, ASOP is actually located in the offices of the government relations and communications consulting firm FraegreBD, where ASOPs executive director, also happens to be a Vice President. And ECI Communications is a PR firm which does extensive business for U.S. pharmaceutical companies. Of course LegitScript.com happens to be a founding member of ASOP. Can we trust LegitScript.com or ASOP? Well, you already know who ASOP works for, right? On the other hand, much of LegitScript.com’s income is from a contract with the FDA for $5.2 million. That’s not bad in and of itself but, if that money is being used to spread misinformation to U.S. consumers and lobby congress and maybe even the FDA itself, then that stinks.
The truth is that American consumers are buying medication from outside the U.S., five million of them each year, because many of them can’t afford prices in the U.S. Since 2003, PharmacyChecker.com has been working hard to publish information that helps Americans find safe and affordable medication from these pharmacies. Yet it seems the only safe online pharmacy to ASOP is one that is approved by LegitScript.com, which in turn believes that every pharmacy outside the U.S. that sells into the U.S. including licensed pharmacies in Canada, are not “legitimate” or are “rogue.”
ASOP’s and LegitScript’s vision of “legitimacy” is a nightmare for Americans! Thirty-five million Americans don’t fill a script each year because of cost. A safe online pharmacy is not safe for a consumer who can’t afford the medications it sells. ASOP, LegitScript, the NABP, FDA, etc., can’t wish away the fact that safe international online pharmacies are a lifeline for many American consumers. Scaring these Americans away from safe pharmacy options with misleading and false information means that more Americans will go without their prescribed medications. There is nothing “safe” or “legit” about that.
Tagged with: Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies, ASOP, Big Pharma, consumers, indictment
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Aug 12, 2015 | Advocacy, Cancer Drugs, Counterfeit Drugs, Drug Importation, FDA, Government, Personal Drug Importation
Almost three years ago, we blogged about a federal investigation of CanadaDrugs.com, which for many years has safely sold prescription medication at prices far lower than typically available in the U.S, and which is a verified online pharmacy in the PharmacyChecker.com Verification Program. The investigation focused on CanadaDrugs.com’s wholesale drug importation and distribution to doctors and clinics — an area CanadaDrugs.com has long since exited. It did not focus on CanadaDrugs.com’s retail sales to consumers for personal use, which is the focus of the PharmacyChecker.com Verification Program and the information we provide to consumers on our website about online pharmacies.
Recently, an indictment was unsealed in federal district court in Montana that charged CanadaDrugs.com, Ltd. (the entity which owns CanadaDrugs.com) and others with illegal wholesale drug importation, which allegedly occurred between three to six years ago. The allegations include wholesale distribution of a counterfeit version of the cancer drug Avastin to medical clinics in the U.S.
The indictment of CanadaDrugs, Ltd, comes as no surprise, as the investigation was well publicized. It will also come as no surprise, however, when the U.S. pharmaceutical industry tries to use the charges, which focus exclusively on wholesale drug importation, in an effort to discredit safe personal drug importation. As we have written here and opined in the New York Times, the U.S. pharmaceutical industry and pharmacy chains feel threatened because Americans can and do safely purchase their medications online at substantially lower cost from pharmacies in other countries. Thus, the industry, the “non-profit” groups it funds, and the government agencies which it lobbies and seeks to influence, will see this indictment as yet one more opportunity to scare people from personal drug importation. This slight of hand is wrong, since the investigation and indictment have nothing to do with personal drug importation. In fact, even the Wall Street Journal, which was instrumental in publicizing the investigation, clarified the difference between wholesale businesses and CanadaDrugs.com: “There is no indication that fake medicines were sold through the company’s consumer-focused website, CanadaDrugs.com.”
(more…)
Tagged with: avastin, canadadrugs, kamath, montana
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Jul 24, 2015 | Advocacy, Cancer Drugs, Government, Personal Drug Importation, Pharmaceutical Industry, Policy
Yesterday, in the New York Times, Andrew Pollack reported on the swelling chorus of groups, politicians, and consumers who are sickened by the price of cancer drugs and medication costs generally. They are calling for pharmaceutical companies to justify the outrageous costs of medication.
As part of this swell of frustration and anger about drug prices, over 100 oncologists are calling for the U.S. government to take concrete steps to bring down the prices on expensive cancer medications, many which cost over $100,000/year. One of those steps is allowing importation of cancer drugs across borders for personal use. (What a novel idea!). Despite the federal restrictions on the practice, five million Americans already import prescription drugs for personal use because the costs of medicine are too high domestically. The imports help people afford medications that they would otherwise go without. While people are not prosecuted for doing so as long as the imports are for personal use, expressly legalizing safe prescription importation from licensed pharmacies in other countries is a great idea for all medications, not just cancer medications, and would probably cause medication prices to fall at U.S. pharmacies.
Personal drug importation is just one step among several that doctors are calling on to improve access to affordable cancer medication. Others include allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices like the Veteran’s Administration does; banning deals (“pay-to-delay”) between brand and generic drug companies, in which the former pays off the latter to postpone introducing a lower cost generic drug; and reigning in patent terms so that lower cost generics can come to market faster.
In reading the New York Times article, the tone of criticism reported on was veering toward visceral disgust that so many seem to have with the pharmaceutical industry. But the Wall Street Journal was on this issue, too. In “Doctors Object to High Cancer Drug Prices,” Jeanne Whalen writes: “The doctors focus attention on the financial burden to patients, saying the out-of-pocket costs are bankrupting many just as they’re fighting a deadly illness.”
To conclude, recall that last month we brought you a real story of an American family facing financial ruin due to the cost of a cancer medication. Lisa wrote:
“We are going broke, will probably lose our home and my husband will probably never be able to retire (even though his body is breaking down from 40+ years of a very physical job as a pipe fitter. I (the wife), am permanently disabled. We will die homeless before this drug ever comes within an affordable price.
“Why doesn’t anyone bring this to the press? Why does Congress and Obamacare turn a blind eye? How many hundreds have to die before this drug and options are researched.”
The media coverage mentioned in this post shows that people are bringing this to the press. It’s exactly the press coverage that Lisa and her family deserve, not to mention the tens of millions of Americans who don’t fill prescriptions each year because of cost! Now will the government do something or are they too under the yoke of the pharmaceutical industry lobbying juggernaut?
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Jul 4, 2015 | Advocacy, Government, Internet Censorship
Back in 1776, America’s Founding Fathers agreed that a government should not deprive its people of their natural freedoms. So when I think about the tyranny of high drug prices in America this July 4th – which causes millions of Americans to go without needed medication and face financial hardship – I’m also thinking about the Declaration of Independence and the freedoms it promises. And I write with humility that safe online pharmacies offering lower drug prices from other countries have a lot to do with helping Americans achieve “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Life: There are people living in the United States who, according to their testimonials, would lose their lives if not for safe international online pharmacies.
Liberty: The Internet is a tool of freedom for millions when it comes to access to affordable medication. The Internet helps educate people that medication prices are much lower in other countries and provides access to legally operating and safe pharmacies from which they can obtain affordable medication.
Pursuit of Happiness: In this case I am thinking about the happiness of saving money and the fact that Thomas Jefferson was talking, at least in part, about financial health and security when he penned this phrase. But saving money is not just about getting a “better deal” although there is nothing wrong with that. It’s about the grandparent who pursues happiness by saving a $1000 a year buying medication from a foreign pharmacy so that he or she can visit their grandchildren this July 4th.
For these reasons, at PharmacyChecker.com, we believe it is an honor to help Americans who are going online for lower cost medication by identifying the safest online pharmacy options at which people can buy medication they can afford. By doing so, we empower them to both protect themselves from rogue online pharmacies and their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Happy 4th of July!
Tagged with: fourth of july, liberty, life, pursuit of happiness
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Jul 1, 2015 | Advocacy, Online Pharmacies, Online Pharmacy Verification Services, Skipping medications
Today, online pharmacies that are based and selling medication internationally within the European Union (EU) are required to publish a new EU online pharmacy logo, as shown in the image to your left. We have updated our Verification Program requirements to reflect the EU’s new rules. The practice of international pharmacy is expressly legal within the EU, unlike between, say, the U.S. and Canada, although some EU member countries place national restrictions limiting the scope of cross-border sales. Only online pharmacies based in the member states of the EU are eligible for the new seal. Each seal will contain a special link that consumers can click to verify the seal’s authenticity.
Like the PharmacyChecker seal (right), the purpose of the EU logo is to help consumers shop safely for prescription drugs over the Internet and avoid dangerous pharmacy sites. To obtain a PharmacyChecker seal, an online pharmacy must meet many safety requirements, but its program seeks to maximize global access to safe and affordable medication to protect public health. The PharmacyChecker seal can also be authenticated by clicking it. If the seal profile is not hosted on www.pharmacychecker.com, then it’s a fake seal!
It’s very important to understand that regulating online pharmacies in the EU is very different from U.S. regulations that can prevent Americans from obtaining safe, affordable prescribed medication. Unlike tens of millions in America, citizens of the EU are generally not faced with having to choose between food and medicine due to the high cost of prescription drugs. Why? The costs for prescription drugs are much lower in the EU than in the U.S., and their healthcare systems better ensure that everyone has access to affordable medication. Therefore, unlike Americans, EU citizens are not usually looking online for medications to treat asthma, depression, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, and stroke because they can afford them at local pharmacies. They are much more likely to be bargain hunting for less essential medications, such as those that treat erectile dysfunction and hair loss, because those medications are often not covered by health insurance policies in the EU – similar in that respect to health coverage in the U.S.
Identifying online pharmacies that sell safe and effective medications and meet critical safety criteria protects consumers, and so does helping them find the lowest drug prices. That’s why we launched PharmacyChecker.com in 2003. However, I have a mixed mindset about the new EU online pharmacy logo. I believe that people in the EU, like those in America or anywhere, should be able to access safe and affordable medication globally if they can’t obtain it locally. It’s difficult to tell if the EU’s new logo and rules will impede access to medicines; although, as discussed, drug affordability is a much, much smaller problem in the EU than in the U.S. We’ll be closely following how the new regulations are working and what impact they have on consumers and their online access to safe and affordable medicine.
Tagged with: European Union, logo, PharmacyChecker Verification Program, PharmacyChecker.com Verification Seal, seal
