It’s no secret that those online pharmacies might not be exactly what they claim. But a new investigation by British pharmaceutical fraud advisers Mark Monitor reveals more of the scale of theproblem. A number of those so-called Canadian pharmacies are actually in Russia, for instance, and more than half of the pharmacy sites did not secure customer data. 10% of the sitesadvertised that no prescription was necessary to buy drugs. Mark Monitor surveyed pharmacy sites in June, looking at six popular drugs for erectiledysfunction and weight loss. It concluded that, given the low prices often charged, the drugs were likely to be fake, expired, stolen, diluted – or a different medicine to that promoted on theirlabel. Of the 3,160 online pharmacies selling one of more of the drugs, only four had a Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Site accreditation -a scheme set up by US pharmacy boards. Manyothers falsely claimed they had the accreditation. According to Charlie Abrahams of Mark Monitor, “The things that jumped out were very few were accredited, half of them had nosecurity and they’re selling at about a fifth of the retail price which suggests they’re counterfeit.” The general advice, unsurprisingly, is not to buy medicines online. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society will introduce a logo scheme to help consumers identify genuine sites. It will begin at the end of this year and link to the society’swebsite where visitors can verify the registration details of both the pharmacy and pharmacist.
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