by Gabriel Levitt, Vice President, PharmacyChecker.com and Margaret Rode, PharmacyChecker.com | Jul 28, 2011 | Online Pharmacies
Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) is calling for a crackdown on rogue online pharmacies to curtail prescription drug abuse. Senator Schumer’s emphasis is on stopping online pharmacies that sell drugs without a prescription, particularly addictive drugs, such as Adderall and Xanax, which are controlled substances. We commend Senator Schumer on his actions. Since we first began our own work in 2002, a key requirement for an online pharmacy to be approved in the PharmacyChecker.com Verification Program has been that it require a valid U.S. prescription before dispensing any drug to an American. We also require that any pharmacy selling controlled substances to Americans be based in the U.S. and comply with the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008 – legislation intended to curb drug abuse.
This is not Senator Schumer’s first call to arms regarding online pharmacies. In 2006, he co-sponsored the Internet Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act (S. 399), a bill to curb the sale of prescription drugs over the Internet without a valid prescription. A press release from Schumer’s office noted, “the bill is geared to domestic Internet pharmacies that sell drugs without a valid prescription, not international pharmacies that sell drugs at a low cost to individuals who have a valid prescription from their U.S. doctors.” Unfortunately, S. 399 never became law. (more…)
Tagged with: Adderall, controlled substances, doctor training, drug abuse, Drug Enforcement Agency, illegal online pharmacies, Internet Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act, New York, Online Pharmacies, prescription, rogue online pharmacies, Ryan Haight Act, Schedule I, Schedule II, Senator Charles Schumer, United States, United States Department of Justice, Verification Program, Xanax
by PharmacyChecker.com | Jul 13, 2011 | Saving Money on Prescription Drugs
We’re pleased to announce that we have translated our Guide called How To Save Money on Prescription Drugs, Safely – A Consumer Guide into Spanish, expanding access to our online pharmacy savings information to the Spanish-speaking community. Along with our PharmacyChecker Spanish homepage, and About Online Pharmacies page – Farmacias virtuales y de entrega por correo: Lo que usted debe saber – the Guide can be an exceedingly valuable resource for uninsured and under-insured Spanish-speaking people who live in the United States.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 14.3% of American Hispanics did not take their prescribed medication in 2009 due to cost.The situation is much worse for Hispanic non-citizens, 29 percent who said they did not take their medication due to cost. These dire statistics prove that greater access to affordable medication is most acutely needed by the Hispanic community. We believe that our Guide can help the Hispanic community better access the medicines they need safely.
For more information on our Spanish-Language Consumer Guide, see our recent Press Release – and access the Guide itself, published on our English and Spanish homepages PharmacyChecker.com and PharmacyChecker.com/default_sp.asp.
Tagged with: affordability, community, consumer guide, Hispanic, Latinos, Online Pharmacies, prescription drugs, press release, safety, save money, Spanish, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Jul 7, 2011 | Advocacy, Drug Prices, Online Pharmacies
Over the past few years we’ve found that, despite many positive ratings from actual consumers, the most reputable and safe international online pharmacies are unfairly given low ratings on WOT. As an online community of people who are supposed to rate websites on their trustworthiness, this is clearly problematic. Last week we posted an article about online pharmacies as a forum discussion on WOT – MyWot.com – to share our analysis of why the best international online pharmacies are wrongly receiving poor reputations. It should be recognized that many dangerous online pharmacies, foreign and domestic, are appropriately rated poorly on WOT, but, as described below, that doesn’t excuse rating good websites as bad.
In summary, a handful of WOT’s “Platinum” raters (those that have provided more than 10,000 ratings) mostly look to the online pharmacy evaluations of LegitScript.com and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, both aligned with the interests of big pharmaceutical companies. By doing so, WOT users are serving the commercial interests of the pharmaceutical and U.S. pharmacy industries by giving a low rating to trustworthy and safe online pharmacies. This is wrong and hurts consumers.
Because WOT ratings are used to determine exposure on other sites, unwarranted low ratings of safe and affordable non-U.S. online pharmacies, which are actually trustworthy, can harm American consumers who can’t afford drug prices. Sadly, these low ratings may cause them to forgo needed medication by wrongly believing an affordable online pharmacy is dangerous and untrustworthy when in fact it is very safe and trustworthy.
Since we posted the article as a forum there has been mostly positive feedback (except about the length of the forum) and a frank discussion about online pharmacies, access to medication and Web of Trust.
Tagged with: affordable drugs, LegitScript, mywot.com, National Boards of Pharmacy, Online Pharmacies, platinum rater, ratings, U.S. pharmacy industry, Web of Trust, WOT
