Protect Yourself From Rogue Internet Pharmacies

More and more people are turning to the Internet to obtain their prescription medicines. Unfortunately, though there are some very good Internet pharmacies, anyone can set one up. There are no regulations or controls to prevent a criminal in say, Beijing, Laos or anywhere else from claiming to be a pharmacist and setting up an Internet pharmacy.

The criminals don't care about your health and may try to sell you medicine that is:

Fake,
Out of date,
Re-labeled to a higher dosage,
Stored in conditions that render the medicine useless, or
Subject to a recall by the manufacturer.

Also, when you buy medicines without a prescription you run the risk of the medicine interacting with foods, vitamins or other medicines you may be taking. Some of the rogue Internet pharmacies claim to offer online consultations with a doctor. Even if the Internet pharmacy has a properly licensed and trained doctor available, this is not a substitute for consulting a doctor who knows you and has access to your full medical history.

A further danger with buying drugs on-line is that a rogue pharmacy may not inform you if the drug is recalled by the manufacturer after it has been shipped to you.

Here are some tips on how to tell the good Internet pharmacies from the rogues.

Before you buy, check the following

Is the pharmacy regulated by either Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) in North America or the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) in the UK? (If a pharmacy is registered it will have a logo on its website that will take you to either the VIPPS or the RPS website. To date, only twenty pharmacies have registered with the VIPPS scheme).

Is the Internet pharmacy prepared to sell you prescription medicines without a prescription? You should not buy from such a pharmacy.

Does the Internet pharmacy provide contact details and a phone number on its website? If yes, then you should google the address and phone number to make sure they are not merely a PO Box or virtual phone number that can be set up from anywhere in the world. You should not buy from a website whose contact or address details do not appear to be genuine.

If you do decide to buy from an Internet pharmacy, here are some further checks you can perform to give yourself some comfort that you have purchased the medicine from a reputable company:

Check the envelope in which the medicine arrives to see where it was sent from.
Check if the medicine's packaging is similar to what you have purchased in the past.
If the medicine is in pill form, check if the pills look similar to what you have purchased in the past.
When taking the medicine, watch out for different sensations/taste/feeling than expected.
Check your credit card statement to see if the merchant's name is the same as that shown on pharmacy's website.

If you have any concerns about a medicine you have purchased, or are thinking of purchasing, from an Internet pharmacy you should discuss them with your doctor.

http://www.checkdrugs.com - to search for alerts and recalled medicines.

http://www.checkpharma.com - to register a complaint about an Internet pharmacy.

Jack(John) Conway MSc, FAIA is a Co-Founder of Cardan Technologies Inc. Jack(John) was a member of the HDMA product safety task force and has spoken at several conferences about consumer safety.

Cardan Technologies Inc is a management consulting firm based in Canada focusing on RFID and consumer safety and privacy. Cardan owns both checkdrugs.com and checkpharma.com