by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | May 3, 2018 | Big Pharma
Central to Big Pharma’s lobbying efforts is relying on drug company-funded “nonprofit” groups to sanitize their goals under the veneer of charity. Investigative reporting in Tarbell, a media organization founded by healthcare activist Wendell Potter, shows that drug companies, namely Eli Lilly, successfully lobbied the Obama administration to make Internet companies embrace policies that curtail online access to affordable medication.
These pharma-funded nonprofits engage fellow industry-tied patient groups, the media and people, promoting the idea that rogue online pharmacies and safe international online pharmacies are the same thing. Their message: don’t buy lower-cost medications online from other countries because it’s too dangerous.
That message is an outright lie.
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Tagged with: Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies, ASOP, Big Pharma, Eli Lilly, LegitScript, Obama Administration, tarbell
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | May 22, 2015 | Policy, Politics, Saving Money on Prescription Drugs
As you’ll discover below, the Obama administration’s policies to combat the manufacture and sale of counterfeit medications have a lot to do with furthering the agenda of the pharmaceutical industry in discouraging and curtailing online access by Americans to safe and affordable medication. Remember “The Deal” between the Obama administration and Big Pharma, in the form of the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), in which the Obama administration agreed to abandon supporting drug importation legal reform to lower drug prices for Americans if PhRMA would support Obamacare? I’ve always wondered how far that deal went.
This week, in our continuing quest to get the truth out and for our elected leaders in Congress to take bold action to protect online access to safe and affordable medication, we’re publishing the next section of our report called Online Pharmacies, Personal Drug Importation, and Public Health…
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Tagged with: Congress, CSIP, GoodRx, intellectual, Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, IPEC, Obama Administration, rogue online pharmacies, safe online pharmacies, United States
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Dec 4, 2014 | Internet Censorship, Online Pharmacies
Some consumers who order medication from safe international pharmacies are finding themselves unable to use their VISA credit cards. We hope that doesn’t interfere with their ability to access safe and affordable medication. What’s going on?
Essentially, in taking actions to stop rogue online pharmacies from selling medication, VISA’s online pharmacy policy ends up discriminating against consumers seeking affordable medication from safe international online pharmacies. It appears that VISA has adopted the online pharmacy worldview of LegitScript, a verification service that categorizes safe international online pharmacies as “unapproved” (but not “rogue”) and teams up with big pharmaceutical companies and U.S. chain pharmacies! VISA’s policy may set a precedent for more credit card payment processors; discontinued service to rogue pharmacy websites is good, but if service is discontinued to safe international online pharmacies, including ones approved by PharmacyChecker.com, that’s bad. (more…)
Tagged with: credit card, gatekeepers, Obama Administration, VISA
