International Pharmacies Online
Prescription
Drugs: Online pharmacies face restrictive trade practices even when
they are quite legal. The High Cost of Prescription Drugs for Uninsured
Americans. International online pharmacies fight back ..
With
the increased cost of prescription drugs, the economic recession and
unemployment on the rise, more and more consumers are turning to the
Internet for discounted prescription medications. Safety and confidentiality
are among the main concerns shoppers face when purchasing prescription
drugs from online pharmacies. Pharmacy Network (www.pharmacy-network.com)
aims to dispel these worries and put an end to the reputation the Internet
has given online pharmacies, particularly International, Mexican and
Canadian pharmacies most of whom provide a valuable service often against
the internet itself as they are barred from advertising in the main
search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing unless they are pharmacy
businesses registered in the USA and they purchase a Pharmacy Checker
badge.
Whilst
Pharmacy Network completely supports the ousting and blacklisting of
Drugstores that are known scams and those that irresponsibly supply
fake or outdated medications the whole international pharmacy industry
should not be made to pay in the way that it has. Independent businesses
which is what they are including PharmacyChecker.com and now new kid
on the block LegitScript.com have taken it upon themselves to "clean
up" the internet in respect of pharmacies. For what reason? They
are good Citizens who really care? ... The truth of the matter is that
they want to make money out of it and can do so out of selling their
services to the main search engines. However in doing so and no matter
what their intentions may be, what they have done is to effectively
say that every pharmacy in the World that isn't registered in the USA
and who pays them a fee is a "rogue or blacklisted pharmacy",
and; Guess what? Google, Yahoo and Bing buy that because it's easier
for them to accept a third party screening of advertisers rather than
do it themselves. Actually what they are all achieving is to support
restrictive trading practices something which is illegal in Europe under
EEC law. There has to be a better way.. it is ridiculous to state that
the only pharmacies in the World that are legitimate and safe are American
pharmacies who pay fees to independent screeners.. and who screens the
screeners .. and what special qualifications do PharmacyChecker.com
and LegitScript.com have to assess the capability and legitimacy of
International Online Pharmacies?
Yahoo!
Also Displaying No-Prescription Required, non-US Internet Pharmacy Ads
2009 SEP 6 - (NewsRx.com) LegitScript.com, an online pharmacy verification
service, and KnujOn.com, an Internet compliance company, have released
a report analyzing Yahoo's online advertisements for Internet pharmacies.
The report indicates that more than 80% of Yahoo's Internet pharmacy
ads reviewed by the authors were operating contrary to US federal and
state laws (see also Pharmaceuticals).
In the report, the researchers state that
they were able to buy prescription drugs without a prescription from
Yahoo Internet pharmacy advertisements, including of potentially habit-forming
medications. In one case, the drugs were imported from India, which
is prohibited by US law.
The
report also touches on PharmacyChecker.com, Yahoo!'s Internet pharmacy
verification service. In the report, the authors indicate that they
acquired prescription drugs without a prescription from an Internet
pharmacy approved by PharmacyChecker and listed on PharmacyChecker.com.
Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft require their
Internet pharmacy advertisers to be verified as legitimate by PharmacyChecker.
In
an earlier report, the authors announced that they had purchased prescription
drugs without a prescription, and had been sent counterfeit medications,
from bing.com online pharmacy advertisers. A few days after Microsoft
responded that it had manually reviewed its pharmacy ads and removed
all offenders, KnujOn announced that it had conducted yet another purchase
of addictive prescription drugs from a bing.com advertiser without a
valid prescription.
Yahoo's policy requires Internet pharmacy
advertisers to be "based in" the United States or Canada.
The report reviewed three Internet pharmacies that were approved as
advertisers based on having a Canadian pharmacy license. In all three
cases, the Internet pharmacies indicated that the drugs would actually
be shipped from places like India, Singapore or Barbados, not Canada.
One Internet pharmacy advertiser approved as a licensed Canadian Internet
pharmacy stated that it could fill prescriptions anywhere in the world
except for Canada, because prescription drug importation is illegal
there.
The report indicates that three national
organizations, including the American Pharmacists Association (APhA),
National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP), and National Center
on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, have
written to all three search engines over the last year to warn them
that they were profiting from ads placed by online pharmacies acting
unlawfully.
"We're making this a public issue
because it's time for this to stop," KnujOn President Garth Bruen
said. "If the search engines continue to knowingly facilitate illegal
prescription drug sales, then we'll continue to issue these reports.
Our reports stop when the problem is fixed."
"Yahoo!
needs to require that its Internet pharmacy ads adhere to US laws and
National Association of Boards of Pharmacy standards," LegitScript
President John Horton said. "These are the same safeguards that
govern brick-and-mortar pharmacies used throughout the US everyday.
Shouldn't American Internet users be assured of the same safeguards
online?"
LegitScript
is the only Internet pharmacy verification organization in the United
States identified by the NABP as adhering to its standards for certifying
Internet pharmacies as safe and legitimate.
and..
Los Angeles Times columnist David Lazarus writes ".. until
the U.S. can extend health coverage to everyone and limit drug prices
to reasonable levels, many Americans will have no choice but to seek
the best possible deal for their meds, and this will often require them
to look beyond our borders, via the Internet. Lawmakers need to step
carefully in any crackdown on Internet drug sales because, simply put,
we can't punish people for trying to make up for shortfalls of the U.S.
health care system."
The
Law! .. In the case of the USA (and indeed most Countries) the FDA (and
other Government authorities) will allow you to legally import up to
three months supply of a medication providing it is for your personal
usage and not for resale.
Pharmacy
Network are one of the leading online pharmacies.. established over
10 years they supply a huge range of brand and generic medications including
cancer drugs, diabetes drugs, HIV and anti viral drugs, antibiotics,
CNS stimulants, heart & cardiovascular medications, female hormones
and pain management drugs..