Related topics: •  Drug Information Center

How do you tell whether an online pharmacy is legitimate? Armed with the information below, you can easily weed out unscrupulous sellers and take advantage of the convenience of buying prescription drugs online.

The National Association of Boards of Pharmacies has an excellent screening tool: It issues a seal of approval, called VIPPS, which is short for Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites. In order to get it, sites have to prove they are licensed as well as allow scrutiny by an NABP (National Association of Boards of Pharmacies) inspection team. However, an online pharmacy can be legitimate even without VIPPS certification, which the pharmacy board encourages but does not require. As of February 2008, only 14 sites had it.

Even if an online pharmacy doesn't have VIPPS, it should display its licensing information and an office address you can contact in case you have a problem. You can check out its licensing with your own state board of pharmacies. The Web site for the National Association of Boards of Pharmacies, listed below, provides contact information for each state.

Another way to be certain that an online pharmacy is legitimate is to use one that's linked to a pharmacy you've visited in person, according to the National Consumers League. If it's a bricks-and-mortar pharmacy that exists outside of cyberspace, then you can be assured that it's safe to purchase medications at the online site.

Many of them do not, but they should. An Internet search for medication will yield a flurry of Web sites that try to entice customers to buy Viagra or Prozac with the lure of "no prior prescription needed," and "no doctor visits required," often claiming bargain sale prices. In the last few years, journalists doing news reports have found they can easily buy steroids, diet drugs, and narcotics without a prescription, sometimes simply by filling out a short questionnaire allegedly scrutinized by a doctor. In one questionnaire, a reporter added an imaginary 40 pounds to her weight and quickly received the diet drug Bontril, which can cause insomnia and increase blood pressure.

To Richard Cleland, who investigates Internet fraud for the US Federal Trade Commission, the "no prescription needed" claims are clear signs of trouble. "The legitimate pharmacies are the ones that require a prescription from your treating physician. So that knocks out virtually all but 10 percent of so-called Internet pharmacies," says Cleland. "The safest thing is to look for the VIPPS seal of certification from the boards of pharmacies. That's the gold standard."

An online survey of your medical history by an unknown doctor (or someone who says he or she is a doctor) is no substitute for a face-to-face exam with a doctor, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. Without an exam by a doctor who has full knowledge of your medical and medication history, you have no way of knowing how a new medication will affect you, warns Patricia Harris, executive officer of the California Board of Pharmacy.

"Having the oversight of a health professional is critical, because it may impact your health if you don't," explains Harris. She says, for example, that a new prescription could reduce the effectiveness of a drug you're already taking or cause dangerous side effects.

Harris points out that some drugs are available only by prescription for a reason: Doctor-patient contact is crucial. The fly-by-night companies bypass that relationship and could be putting patients at risk, she says. Even nonprescription medicines can interact harmfully with other medications you're taking. So it's important for your doctor and pharmacy to know everything you take.

Yes, if you use the right tools to select a legitimate online pharmacy. If it's not a licensed site, you have no way of knowing if what you get in the mail is what you ordered, if it's contaminated or of high quality, and who manufactured it. Unlicensed sites, often referred to as "rogue sites," may not even send you information about the proper dosage and side effects of the medication you've purchased. But if you are using a legitimate mail-order pharmacy, ordering a refill online is considered perfectly safe.

In many cases, yes. A 1999 survey by Consumer Reports found that those who purchased online saved as much as 29 percent on costs. However, a University of Pennsylvania study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in the same year found that the median price of two popular drugs -- Viagra and Propecia -- were on average 10 percent higher than the same drugs purchased in pharmacies in Philadelphia, according to an article in the FDA's consumer magazine.

Here are some more tips from the FDA and the National Consumers League to help you make safe choices about buying medication online:

•Only do business with sites that have a registered pharmacist to answer questions.

•Only purchase from US-based Web sites. If you have a problem, it's more likely you'll have legal recourse.

•Stick to sites that require confirmation from your doctor for any medicine you want to buy.

•Only use an online pharmacy that posts information about how it responds to complaints.

-- Laurie Udesky is an award-winning, San Francisco based health reporter and a frequent contributor to Consumer Health Interactive.

Further Resources

U.S. Food and Drug Administration

National Consumers League

U.S. Federal Trade Commission

National Association of Boards of Pharmacy

References

First published July 8, 2003
Last updated February 26, 2008
Copyright © 2003 Consumer Health Interactive

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