Newswise — Many of us turn to the Internet to simplify our day-to-day transactions, reserving plane tickets, finding apartments and keeping in touch with old friends via cyberspace. Some of us even buy products such as prescription drugs online. This is one online transaction, says Dr. Marv Shepherd, which requires caution.
Before you click the mouse to have that antibiotic, asthma inhaler or cholesterol-lowering drug sent to your door, consider the risks, says Shepherd, the Klinck Centennial Professor in the College of Pharmacy and director of the Center for Pharmoeconomic Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. That Web site may make your prescription drugs more convenient, but it may also make them more dangerous.
Marv Shepherd
Dr. Marv Shepherd’s research and expertise on drug importation and drug counterfeiting has been featured on CNN, NPR and in Newsweek, Time, U.S. News & World Report, the New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today, among others.
“There’s a big problem with rogue Web sites,” Shepherd warns. “It’s very difficult to determine whether a Web site represents an authentic pharmacy or a counterfeit drug pharmacy. You can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys.”
Shepherd has made it his mission to keep the bad guys from getting their products into the homes and bodies of American consumers.
Rogue Web sites abound. Shepherd reports that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) surveyed Canadian pharmacy Web sites. They discovered 11,000 Web sites claiming to be Canadian sites selling pharmaceuticals. Closer analysis revealed that only 214 pharmacies in Canada sell pharmaceuticals over the Web.
And what about the other 10,000-plus sites? They included sites in Pakistan, Southeast Asia, Mexico and even Washington State. Consumers who order pharmaceuticals from them may receive counterfeit drugs with incorrect dosage, false labeling, no pharmaceutical benefit or worse.
“For many counterfeit products, it is difficult to distinguish the genuine product from the counterfeit product without a forensic test,” Shepherd says. “They may have the brand name on them, but they aren’t the brand name product.”
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/553895/