When purchasing prescription drugs online, one effective way to protect yourself is to look for an accreditation symbol. In the United States, the NABP VIPPS® (Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites) accreditation logo was designed to help consumers identify safe pharmacy sites. The new .PHARMACY generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) was also developed and is close to becoming operational, so consumers will have another way
to avoid rogue, potentially dangerous online pharmacies.

In European countries, the EU Commission recently launched it’s own accreditation program to protect patients from falsified medicines sold online. The program includes a logo, available in various languages, which links to an authoritative site where all approved online pharmacies are listed. The establishment of the program was introduced last year by an EU Directive on Falsified Medicines, which aims to prevent falsified medicines from entering the legal supply chain by strengthening existing controls and introducing new measures.

If there is no accreditation logo on a pharmacy website, how can you tell if it is safe? Last
week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued its first guidance under Title II
of the “Drug Supply Chain Security Act.” The document includes a description of websites that have a much higher chance of selling fake medicines, including:

• Purchasing drugs from a new source;
• Responding to an unsolicited offer, usually with a significantly lower price, that comes through an advertisement, email, fax or telephone call;
• Purchasing a product on the Internet from an unknown source; and
• Purchasing a product that is in high demand or one that is on the drug shortage list.

At CSIP, we recommend that consumers follow the advice in the FDA guidance document, check all online pharmacy sites before they buy using our LegitScript Pharmacy Verification Tool, and educate themselves about the dangers of illegitimate online pharmaceuticals and pharmacies.

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The Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies (CSIP) and our 13 member companies have the shared goal of helping address the growing problem of consumer access to illegitimate pharmaceutical products on the Internet. Continue to read this blog for updates on CSIP’s education, enforcement and information-sharing efforts.