by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Oct 28, 2014 | Internet Censorship
A Letter to the ICANN Community
Today, the Wall Street Journal reported on the subject of rogue online pharmacies and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The gist of the article is that ICANN is not doing enough to stop dangerous pharmacy websites. There is reason to believe that ICANN could do more but it could also do too much to the detriment of consumers who cannot afford medication locally. There’s an appropriate middle ground for getting rid of rogue pharmacy sites, but not overreaching and ending online access to safe and affordable medication. Willfully ending such access threatens the public health and treads on global norms relating to human rights and access to medications.
Earlier this month I attended an ICANN conference for the first time, which was in Los Angeles. We’ve written on several occasions about the application by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) to ICANN to operate a new generic top level domain (gTLD) called “.pharmacy”. To remind many of our readers, gTLDs are the endings of websites, such as .com, .org, .gov, .edu, .int, etc. The bottom line here is that we and many others believe that NABP, if its application is successful, will use its new ICANN-conferred legitimacy to stifle competition, mislead the public about online pharmacies, and in doing so curtail access by Americans and consumers worldwide to safe and affordable medication online.
I met many dedicated, interesting and well-informed people at the ICANN conference, including those serving within the ICANN community and others following it closely. To follow up with them I wrote the following letter.
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Tagged with: human rights, ICANN, NABP, pharmacy, Wall Street Journal
by PharmacyChecker.com | Jul 20, 2012 | Counterfeit Drugs, Drug Importation, Online Pharmacies
For the last six months the WSJ has actively reported on fake Avastin purchased by some medical clinics in the United States. The latest report focuses on the fact that the owner of the foreign wholesaler that shipped the fake Avastin to the U.S. is also the owner of a large international online pharmacy called CanadaDrugs.com. The WSJ reporting makes it clear that the wholesale business is separate from CanadaDrugs.com.
CanadaDrugs.com is a long-standing member of the PharmacyChecker.com Verification Program. It takes orders online filled by licensed pharmacies that require a valid prescription. It does not sell Avastin and the WSJ didn’t report any safety problems associated with its operation.
PharmacyChecker.com’s programs are designed to provide information to consumers seeking safe and affordable medication online for their own use. We recognize that importation by medical clinics does occur and the reason is that drug prices of many drugs are unusually high in the United States. We believe that wholesale drug importation presents unique drug supply and safety challenges that should be addressed but are not related to personal drug importation.
Tagged with: avastin, CanadaDrugs.com, Counterfeit Drugs, personal drug importation, Wall Street Journal
by PharmacyChecker.com | Jun 7, 2011 | Drug Prices
In March of this year the FDA took the unusual step of allowing an “unapproved” compounded drug to remain on the market to explicitly make sure Americans could afford that product. That drug is hydroxyprogesterone caproate, branded by K-V Pharmaceuticals as Makena, the first FDA-approved drug to prevent the risk of preterm birth in certain women. Will more such government interventions continue in support of drug affordability?
According to the Wall Street Journal Blog,“Typically, whenever a drug is approved, pharmacy compounding isn’t allowed and the FDA acts to remove any unapproved drugs that might on be the U.S. market.” However, the FDA is allowing the compound to remain solely because of the outrageous cost for the brand-name product; Makena is priced at $1,500 per dose! Before Makena was approved, the same drug without the K-V branding and FDA stamp of approval cost between $10 – 20 per dose.
To the best of our knowledge, the FDA’s role does not include controlling prices to help Americans have access to the medication they need. However, that is precisely what the FDA did in the case of Makena. In our opinion, that’s also what the FDA does by not enforcing certain personal drug importation laws that, if enforced, would prevent Americans from affording needed medication. Currently, under its personal drug importation policy, the FDA has stated it does not take enforcement action against individuals who import non-controlled medicines, which are generally (and ironically) viewed as not FDA-approved even if they’re the exact same drug sold here, often due to labelling or pill color and shape differences between otherwise identical products. (more…)
Tagged with: Americans, Avanair Pharmaceuticals, Colcrys, Compound drugs, Drug Importation, FDA, FDA-approved, hydroxyprogesterone caproate, K-V Pharmaceuticals, lawmakers, Makena, non-controlled medicines, Not FDA-approved, Nuedexta, personal drug importation, Pharmaceutical Prices, policy, U.S. Government, URL Pharma, Wall Street Journal
