But there’s something else.

Both are unfairly trashing the legitimacy of licensed Canadian pharmacies — real, honest-to-goodness, brick-and-mortar pharmacies that have been inspected and approved to sell prescription medications to Americans by the Canadian government.

How are the Russians doing it? Through spam.

Much of the damage to the good name of Canadian pharmacies can be traced to a single criminal organization in Russia that calls itself a “Canadian Pharmacy”.

The group, which operates thousands of sites, sends as many as 60 billion spam e-mails per day. No doctors, no prescriptions, no consultations, no buildings, even — but they will ship you medications.

Some of these rogue pharmacies add metal shavings or other contaminants to the drugs they send out. In 2007, one Canadian woman was killed by pills laced with poisonous metals. The woman’s payments were traced to a Russian bank.

In other words, by sending out millions of spam e-mails, claiming to be Canadian, and then shipping dangerous products, Russian mobsters are giving some Americans the wrong idea about properly licensed Online Canadian and Mail-Order pharmacies.

Big Pharma, Friend of the Mob

So, how is Big Pharma assisting the Russians in impugning the good name of Canadian pharmacies? By cleverly attempting to link these Russian spam operations with legitimate, licensed drugstores — even though there is no link whatsoever.

Big Pharma and organizations that receive funding from Big Pharma, such as the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) and others, have been spewing out op-eds and “reports” lately that say, for example, “90 percent” of pharmacy ads on the Microsoft, Google and Yahoo networks are by “rogue pharmacies.”

What they don’t explain is that, by their definition, all pharmacies based in Canada — even those explicitly approved by the Canadian government to sell prescription drugs to Americans — are “rogue.”

What nonsense. The major search engines run afoul of Big Pharma for one reason and one reason only: they make it easier for Americans to buy medications from Canada. And overall, the search engines have been very responsible in ensuring that only legitimate pharmacies are allowed to advertise, although occasionally a bad actor might slip through the cracks.

In other words, Big Pharma’s claims are utter nonsense. Unfortunately, some gullible members of the media have fallen for the pharmaceutical industry’s big-dollar PR campaign, hook, line and sinker.

Real Canadian Pharmacies

So, what are real Canadian pharmacies like? The ones that are inspected, licensed and government-approved?

I’ll give you just one example.

AdvCare Pharmacy bills itself as the “neighborhood pharmacy at your fingertips” — and that’s exactly what it is.

Staffed by a team of dedicated, Ontario-licensed pharmacists, AdvCare has an inventory of more than 20,000 prescription drugs and serves residents of both Canada and the United States.

If you want to see for yourself that AdvCare is no different from your own neighborhood pharmacy (except for the prices), you can visit this friendly corner pharmacy in person at its home in Markham, Ontario. The street address is on the Web site.

AdvCare is one of more than 25 duly licensed, completely legitimate online pharmacies in the eDrugSearch.com network.

So please — please — don’t buy the nonsense propagated by Big Pharma and its proxies like the NABP and others. Just because a pharmacy is Canadian doesn’t mean it’s a “rogue pharmacy.” If that were true, where would Canadians go for their own prescriptions?

Big Pharma’s argument is absurd on its face. But of course, that’s never stopped them before.

The post Here’s one thing that Big Pharma and Russian mobsters have in common appeared first on eDrugSearch Blog.

Unfortunately, PharmacyChecker.com has been under attack from Big Pharma and its proxies in recents months. Last year, Big Pharma launched a disinformation campaign, advanced by the NABP and other organizations, to link licensed, legitimate Canadian pharmacies with dangerous rogue pharmacies. This despite the fact that no American has ever been reported injured by a drug purchased from a licensed Canadian pharmacy.

We chatted recently with PharmacyChecker.com Vice President Gabriel Levitt about his organization’s mission, Big Pharma propaganda, and the drug reimportation legislation recently put before Congress.

Q: When and why was PharmacyChecker.com created?

A: PharmacyChecker.com opened its virtual doors in April of 2003 to help Americans identify licensed pharmacies operating online that offered the best prices. The earliest origins of the company began with requests to ConsumerLab.com’s president, Tod Cooperman, M.D., about how to find safe Canadian online pharmacies and Dr. Cooperman’s subsequent decision to start such a service focusing on pharmacies both in and outside the United States.

Q: How did your relationship with Google come about? How does it work?

A: In 2006, the search engines needed a new company to help them qualify and monitor online pharmacies to prevent “rogue” online pharmacies from advertising in their search marketing spaces. PharmacyChecker.com was already involved in precisely these efforts for three years and was the natural company to go with.

Q: In the past year, the pharmaceutical industry, the NABP and others have mounted a campaign to convince people that Canadian pharmacies aren’t safe. What are your thoughts about the industry’s arguments and tactics?

A: These groups have cleverly taken genuine concerns over counterfeiting and unethical pharmacy practices by truly rogue websites and associated those fears with safe, licensed non-U.S. online pharmacies that operate ethically. They do this by publishing “not approved” lists that include safe, Canadian-based online pharmacies AND dangerous, rogue websites, attempting to brand them as one and the same.

With funding by Pfizer, for example, the NABP created such a list of “not approved” pharmacies. The pharmaceutical trade group, PhRMA, created a website that directs people to this list. Other groups that appear to receive funding or revenue from pharmaceutical companies have used similar schemes to brand licensed non-U.S. pharmacies as rogue, illegal, illegitimate, or not approved.

Why are pharmaceutical companies doing this? Most likely because safe, Canadian-based online pharmacies are putting a dent in their profits by allowing Americans to buy their drugs at lower prices.

The fact is that non-U.S. websites that are verified by PharmacyChecker.com require an original prescription, fill orders with licensed pharmacies and meet other important safety standards of online pharmacy practice. These sites help Americans who can’t afford the drug prices here at home. In complete contrast, rogue online pharmacies are dangerous, unethical, and often take advantage of the American consumer. It seems wrong that NABP, the pharmaceutical industry, and related parties are trying to lead Americans to believe that these two very different types of websites are one and the same.

Recently, we have learned that these groups are using similar tactics to scare search engines from permitting low cost pharmacies in Canada and elsewhere from advertising. It seems particularly galling for them to do this now, at a time when millions of Americans are already skipping medication due to cost.

Q: One of the industry’s main arguments against reimportation is that the drugs that licensed Canadian pharmacies sell to Americans do not meet the same safety standards as the drugs sold to Canadians. What is your response to this?

A: Regulated drug products manufactured under Good Manufactured Practices (GMP) and sold in Canada and many other countries are just as safe as those approved in the United States. If the head of the NABP or even the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of American were travelling in Winnipeg and needed medication due to a sudden illness would they trust a Canadian pharmacy? Of course they would. Drug products approved in Canada are just as safe as those in the U.S.

Q: We know that the industry has been planting stories in the news media, including attacks on Google and PharmacyChecker. Are you concerned about these attempts to discredit you? How are you responding to them?

A: Such stories do appear to be stimulated by the pharmaceutical industry or those supported by the industry. While some contain legitimate concerns, they typically build on the strategy of mixing issues, trying to mislead and unnecessarily scare consumers and other parties. On several occasions we have been contacted by journalists who claim that a dangerous drug can be purchased without a prescription from a site approved by us. We have proven this to be incorrect, as in the case above. We are proactive in contacting and correcting those sites that publish incorrect or misleading information.

Q: Do you believe that the Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act of 2009, allowing American consumers to purchase drugs from Canadian pharmacies, will be made law this year? Why or why not?

A: That bill was voted down in committee. Right now an amendment has passed in the Senate that would help Americans continue to purchase safe medication from Canada, by not allowing newly allocated funds to be used to confiscate such shipments; although confiscations have been rare in recent years anyhow. It’s uncertain if this amendment will become law.

I really don’t know what will happen in Congress but I hope our government doesn’t rely on promises from the pharmaceutical companies about lowering drug prices in the future as a reason to stop Americans from getting their medications now. The recent announcement that pharmaceutical companies will provide a discount to seniors during the “gap” in Medicare Part D drug programs is not much of a concession and of no value to the vast majority of Americans.

Q: Anything else you’d like to share with our audience?

A: Americans need to be mindful of the intent of pharmaceutical companies to scare them away from lower-cost, licensed pharmacies abroad. They should question information that suggests dangers with such pharmacies and use PharmacyChecker.com’s free verification research and drug price information to help them. Also, our website provides drug price comparisons of non-U.S. pharmacy prices and U.S. pharmacy prices. Americans should know that many generic drugs are cheaper in the United States and should take advantage of those low prices.

The post An interview with Gabriel Levitt of PharmacyChecker.com appeared first on eDrugSearch Blog.

While reading Benjamin Gluck’s Internet Pharmacy Law blog, I came across a reference to an “Internet pharmacy verification and information service” I hadn’t yet heard of: LegitScript.

I like the professed mission of LegitScript: to improve online pharmacy safety by offering a database that allows consumers to enter a pharmacy’s name and find out whether it’s legitimate or not. LegitScript apparently intends to make money by providing a verification seal to online pharmacies that meet its standards. I say “apparently” because LegitScript verification is currently provided free of charge.

All of which sounds fine — until you look a little closer.

You see, LegitScript claims ALL Canadian pharmacies are unsafe. Even the most established, reputable pharmacies — licensed and inspected by the Canadian government — get classified as rogue online pharmacies by LegitScript.

Is this because these pharmacies are actually unsafe? Of course not. Consumer Reports — not exactly a rogue organization — advises consumers to buy from Canadian pharmacies. And FDA officials cannot identify a single American injured as a result of drugs purchased from licensed Canadian pharmacies.

So what’s this nonsense about? And more pointedly, what is LegitScript really about?

Well, just doing a little Googling, I found out a few things about LegitScript.

I discovered that its founder, John Horton, was a White House aide for George W. Bush from 2002 to 2007, serving in the office of National Drug Control Policy. I learned that Horton had given money to the 2008 presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, the candidate most strongly in the corner of Big Pharma in its fight against Canadian drug reimportation. The company is based in the Washington, D.C., area, home of the Big Pharma lobby. All of which makes me wonder who’s funding LegitScript — and why.

As we’ve reported here before, Big Pharma and its proxies, like the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy and the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, have dramatically stepped up their disinformation campaign against Canadian drugs in recent months.

Why now? Clearly, it’s because both John McCain and Barack Obama have promised to legalize consumer purchases of Canadian drugs. With public support for drug reimportation at 80 percent, how can you blame them?

So Big Pharma has got to spread enough nonsense — scare enough people — to bring those poll numbers down. That way, Big Pharma’s water-carriers in Congress can feel comfortable blocking any proposed reimportation legislation.

Who knows? Maybe LegitScript’s ambition is to displace PharmacyChecker as the verification system that Google uses to vet pharmacies for its ad network. If LegitScript were successful in doing this, no Canadian pharmacies would be allowed to advertise through Google — a major victory for the U.S. pharmaceutical industry.

I’m speculating here, of course. But I’m wondering if eDrugSearch.com, PharmacyChecker, RxRights, CIPA, MIPA, IMPAC, Consumer Reports, and others who support the right of Americans to purchase drugs from safe and licensed Canadian pharmacies should band together to challenge this disinformation campaign.

What say you, friends?

Here are some other groups that support personal drug importation from licensed Canadian pharmacies:

• American Association of Health Freedom
• American Academy of Family Physicians
• National Federation of Independent Business
• National Retiree Legislative Network
• National Education Association
• National Farmers Union
• Telephone Pioneer Family Campers

Source: www.govtrack.us

The post Are ALL Canadian Pharmacies “Rogue” Online Pharmacies? LegitScript Thinks So. appeared first on eDrugSearch Blog.