by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | May 13, 2011 | Online Pharmacies, Online Pharmacy Verification Services
Today the New York Times reported that Google is setting aside $500 million to settle what is apparently an investigation into whether it knowingly allowed rogue online pharmacies to advertise in its ad programs. We at PharmacyChecker.com are mentioned in this article because from the summer of 2006 until February 2010, Google’s stated policy was that its pharmacy advertisers had to be approved by PharmacyChecker.com, meeting our high standards. Unfortunately, as we have previously reported, rogue online pharmacies that never applied to our program found a way to advertise on Google. We were never the gatekeepers for Google; that remained their job.
In February of 2010, likely due to pressure from the government investigation and perhaps the pharmaceutical industry, Google changed its policy to exclude all non-U.S. online pharmacies from advertising on Google in the United States. It stopped working with us, as we do not exclude reputable and safe Canadian and other international pharmacies. Google began working with the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Site (VIPPS) program, run by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, a program that is only open to U.S. pharmacies. After this change, rogue online pharmacies apparently continued to advertise on Google. In November of last year, to take a stronger stance against rogue online pharmacies, Google filed a lawsuit against rogue online pharmacies, holding them liable for violating its advertising policies.
It appears that the gate through which advertisers enter Google has swung from too open, allowing in pharmacies never approved by us or others, to now just open a crack, where many good pharmacies offering good prices can’t get in. The $500 million allocated for a settlement is probably going to keep that door nearly closed for a while, but we hope that it will eventually swing to a place where rogues are kept out and good players get in. In the meantime, we remain diligently checking and monitoring online pharmacies. You can find them on our ratings pages and you can check their prices too.
Tagged with: Google, investigation, rogue online pharmacies
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Nov 24, 2010 | Online Pharmacy Verification Services
Click on the seal to test its validity and view the online pharmacy profile.
Just last week the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously voted for a bill – Combatting Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act – to crackdown on websites selling counterfeit products, which will include rogue online pharmacies. This could be a great thing for patient safety. However, critics argue that, if enacted, provisions in the bill will stifle free speech protected under the First Amendment, and may lead to overreaching government activities, including shutting down online pharmacies that are a safe lifeline of affordable prescription medication for American consumers. The bill raises an important topic for consumers: How do you find affordable medication online while staying away from dangerous counterfeit drugs?
Counterfeit drugs can hurt and kill those who take them. And, while the hard data is scant, experts agree that the Internet provides a channel for the sale of counterfeit drugs and some consumers fall victim to rogue online pharmacies that sell them. As AARP reports, due to the high prices of prescription drugs in the United States, millions of Americans go online to find affordable medication but in doing so put their health at risk. PharmacyChecker.com helps consumers identify websites that market and sell safe and effective drugs at an affordable price, and to avoid dangerous counterfeit drugs. Other verification services and trade associations also evaluate online pharmacies, but we believe our program is the most independent and useful for the American consumer. (more…)
Tagged with: affordable prescriptions, Canada, Counterfeit Drugs, Dr. Ram Kamath, Drug Prices, European Union, international pharmacies, Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, Online Pharmacies, Online Pharmacy Verification Services, pharmacychecker.com, save money, Senate Judiciary Committee, seniors, United States, Verification Program, VIPPS, Wal-Mart
by Gabriel Levitt, Vice President, PharmacyChecker.com and Margaret Rode, PharmacyChecker.com | Nov 2, 2010 | Online Pharmacies, Online Pharmacy Verification Services, Personal Drug Importation
On September 21st, 2010, Google filed a civil lawsuit in federal court against over 50 defendants for “violating policies and circumventing technological measures“. This action is part of a series of efforts by Google to prevent rogue online pharmacies from advertising in its search marketing program called adWords.
Google’s filing makes it clear that, despite extensive verification procedures, automated keyword blocking, and a dramatic change of ad policies, some illicit rogue sites still manage to bypass Google’s rules. The lawsuit demonstrates that Google is its own final gatekeeper for websites placing ads using pharmaceutical and pharmacy terms, not third party online pharmacy verification companies it uses to help identify online pharmacies that meet safe standards. It also shows that while PharmacyChecker.com worked with Google, and as the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy’s Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) program does now, unapproved, rogue pharmacies were and are able to find a way to advertise on Google. In viewing its search marketing platform, we find that Google instituted a technical solution to block rogues back in late January 2010, which has proven quite effective, although apparently, according to Google, not perfect. (more…)
Tagged with: affordable prescriptions, Canadian pharmacies, Drug Importation, Drug Prices, drugs from canada, Google, international pharmacies, law suit, low-cost, Online Pharmacies, Online Pharmacy Verification Services, personal drug importation, pharmacychecker.com, rogue pharmacies, save money, United States, VIPPS
by PharmacyChecker.com | Aug 13, 2010 | Online Pharmacy Verification Services
Today we issued a press release about a new study of online pharmacies which showed that all prescription drugs ordered from sites approved by PharmacyChecker.com passed independent authenticity tests. The independent study was conducted by Roger Bate (American Enterprise Institute) and Kimberly Hess (Africa Fighting Malaria) and was published today by the Public Library of Science One.
Bate’s and Hess’ findings back up what we have been saying since our start in 2002: It is safe and affordable to order genuine medication from online pharmacies – from the U.S. and abroad – if they are verified members of the PharmacyChecker.com Verification Program.
Tagged with: Kimberly Hess, Online Pharmacies, pharmacychecker.com, PLoS, Roger Bate
by Tod Cooperman, MD, President, PharmacyChecker.com, and Gabriel Levitt, Vice President, PharmacyChecker.com | Jul 13, 2010 | Online Pharmacy Verification Services
The Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM), a front group for the pharmaceutical industry, recently published a piece in which its vice president, Bryan Liang, conducted an interview with the Inspectorate of General Health in the Netherlands Antilles on the topic of free trade zones and pharmaceuticals sold through them.
While Dr. Liang attempted to paint a sinister picture of pharmacies in free trade zones, noting a potential to “assist foreign and suspect online sellers,” the Inspectorate gave a most positive description of the one and only operation under his purview that has been approved by PharmacyChecker.com. He stated: (more…)
Tagged with: Brian Liang, international pharmacies, Kathleen Sebelius, Online Pharmacy Verification Services, Partnership for Safe Medicines, safemedicines
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Mar 4, 2010 | Online Pharmacy Verification Services
Jump to Comparison Table: Online Pharmacy Verification Services
It is important that you understand the differences among the groups that rate and verify online pharmacies. It’s not only essential to know what credentials each verifies, but the mission and focus of each group. To help, we put together the comparison table below, focusing on topics that should be of interest to the 120,000,000 Americans who struggle to afford their prescription drug bill and are searching online for savings (see Drug Prices SOS for more on this national emergency).
Perhaps the biggest difference that you’ll notice among the groups is that PharmacyChecker.com is the only one to include pharmacies from the U.S. as well as from Canada and select other countries. The Canadian International Pharmacy Association (CIPA) only accepts Canadian-based pharmacies. The Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) program, run by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP), and LegitScript, a private verification service, exclude affordable Canadian pharmacies and others outside the US and exclusively approve U.S. pharmacies.
(more…)
Tagged with: CIPA, LegitScript.com, NABP, Online Pharmacy Verification Services, pharmacychecker, VIPPS
