Purchasing Medication Online

Purchasing medication online certainly has advantages over purchasing from a pharmacy store. For one, online pharmacies often offer better prices, which can accumulate to substantial savings if a patient has a prescription for long-term medication. Furthermore, some patients also prefer to consult privately with licensed pharmacists online in the comfort of their own homes. For those who are not physically mobile due to illness or certain disability, purchasing one’s medication online is certainly more convenient.

However, due to the incredible number of online pharmacies available today, one has to be extremely cautious when going online to purchase any medication. The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) found that there are at least 200 web sites in the United States that dispense prescription drugs without offering any online prescribing service.

Danger of Purchasing from Unlicensed Vendors

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found that many harmful drugs are sold online such as date drugs, weight loss drugs, expired drugs, copycat drugs, unapproved and contaminated drugs. Some web sites even provide prescriptions without actual medical examination or supervision. In such cases, the patient fills in an online questionnaire and medication is prescribed by certain web sites based on these questionnaires. This practice is in complete violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Certain web sites are not even licensed pharmacies and, therefore, are not qualified to diagnose a person’s condition or prescribe medication. Some also do not have security features to protect a buyer’s online information such as credit card details and prescription information. All in all, many web sites that are selling medication are not even pharmacies in the first place.

Purchasing from an unlicensed or unsafe web site can produce unpleasant and sometimes fatal consequences. These web sites may deliver drugs not in the required quantity or origin, or dispense a different drug from what is being prescribed. Patients need to be extremely cautious to ensure the medication they purchase is genuine. Certain counterfeit medications may be cheaper but they can be deceiving, especially when they are labeled with the same brand name and packaging. Despite appearances, they may contain wrong ingredients that can lead to dangerous side effects. One example is the counterfeit version of the FDA-approved weight loss drug Xenical. The counterfeit Xenical contains a harmful ingredient known as Sibutramine that can be potentially misused leading to dependency.

One should be careful to ensure the below precautionary measures are adhered to before purchasing from a particular website.

Checklist for Purchasing Medication Online

In order to ensure one does not purchase from illegal or bogus web sites, the following preventive measures should be carried out beforehand.

Prior to purchasing any medication, the patient should seek medical examination or consultation from his or her doctor. For patients who have certain medical conditions that require long-term medication, there should always be a valid prescription in hand prior to purchasing at any pharmacy, be it online or not. A licensed online pharmacy store should also provide licensed pharmacists that are available for questions or queries. Therefore, a patient should ensure the web site one purchases medication from provides this service.

Second, a web site that does not require a prescription when dispensing a prescribed drug is highly suspicious. Therefore, one should ensure that a prescription is requested by the web site before purchasing a medication.

Third, one should only liaise with licensed online pharmacies that are operating in the U.S. The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) provides a directory of licensed online pharmacies in the U.S. that one can be used as a reference. Websites that are approved by NABP always display the NABP Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice SitesTM Seal, popularly referred to as VIPPS® Seal.

Finally, it is imperative to withhold private information such as credit card details unless one is completely sure that the website provides security features that help protect their information.

Dangerous Drugs Banned by FDA

The FDA has issued a ban on the following drugs that have been offered widely via online pharmacies, which are harmful to public health and can only be prescribed under strict controls. These generic drugs are often imported from foreign countries or sold through foreign online stores.

The generic drugs that are on the FDA prohibited list include:
• Accutane (isotretinoin)
• Actiq (fentanyl citrate)
• Clozaril (clozapine)
• Humatrope (somatropin for injection)
• Lotronex (alosetron hydrochloride)
• Mifiprex (mifepristone or RU-486)
• Plenaxis (abarelix for injectable suspension)
• Thalomid (thalidomide)
• Tikosyn (dofetilide)
• Tracleer (bosentan)
• Trovan (trovafloxacin mesylate or alatrofloxacin mesylate injection)
• Xyrem (sodium oxybate)