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, Vice President, PharmacyChecker.com and Margaret Rode, PharmacyChecker.com | Dec 13, 2010 | Drug Prices, Online Pharmacies
The Obama administration is taking actions to address the illegal sale of counterfeit prescription drugs online. These efforts can benefit patients who could fall victim to rogue online pharmacies, but may also limit access to safe and affordable medication provided by non-U.S. international online pharmacies, many based in Canada. Millions of uninsured and under-insured Americans have purchased prescription drugs through, and relied on, such websites to afford medicine.
Last Monday, the White House Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC), Victoria Espinel, stated that her office was in discussions with Google, Go Daddy, American Express, and Microsoft about cracking down on online pharmacies, and that an announcement about IPEC’s plans moving forward will be made within weeks. This statement seems to be a follow-up to a late-September meeting held by IPEC, which brought together domain registrars and registries to discuss voluntary protocols to combat the sale of non-controlled counterfeit medication online. As we reported, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) notably declined its invitation to attend this meeting, and at least one of its attendees, Go Daddy general counsel Christine Jones, as reported on Domain Incite, communicated that intellectual property protection was not discussed and voluntary protocols were not agreed to. Jones also shared her understanding that an “FDA solution” might be used to combat counterfeit drugs being sold online. Espinel’s statement last week suggests the same. (more…)
Tagged with: Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies, American Express, drugs from canada, FDA, GoDaddy, Google, I-Save RX, ICANN, intellectual property rights, Interpol, IPEC, Joseph Biden, Katheleen Sebelius, Margaret Hamburg, Microsoft, Obama Administration, Online Pharmacies, Pfizer, public health, Public Library of Science One, Rahm Immanuel, rogue pharmacies, under-insured, uninsured, United States
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
