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False Online Pharmacies Pose Risk to Consumers

TOP - Daily

FDA BeSafeRx campaign aims to protect patients from online pharmacy risks

A national campaign to raise public awareness about the prevalence of fraudulent Internet pharmacies has been launched by the FDA.

BeSafeRx – Know Your Online Pharmacy helps consumers make safe purchases by providing resources for patients and caregivers who might purchase medication online. The campaign helps patients better understand who they are buying from, and that the medication they buy needs to match what their doctor prescribed.

Today, the risk of purchasing from a rogue seller is high. According to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, less than 3% of online pharmacies meet state and federal laws. At the same time, a new FDA survey shows nearly 1 in 4 Internet consumers has purchased prescription medicine online. However, almost 30% of consumers said they lacked confidence about how to make safe online purchases.

“Buying medicines from rogue online pharmacies can be risky because they may sell fake, expired, contaminated, not approved by FDA, or otherwise unsafe products that are dangerous to patients,” said FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, MD. “Fraudulent and illegal online pharmacies often offer deeply discounted products. If the low prices seem too good to be true, they probably are. FDA’s BeSafeRx campaign is designed to help patients learn how to avoid these risks.”

False online pharmacies can be dangerous to patient health. They use sophisticated marketing efforts or phony Web storefronts to appear legitimate. Medicines from these Web sites may contain the wrong ingredients, contain too little, too much, or no active ingredient at all, or be made with other harmful ingredients.

Source: FDA.