Illegal online pharmacies, selling potentially unsafe drugs, are the target of a new campaign launched by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The BeSafeRx – Know Your Online Pharmacy campaign aims to warn US citizens about the prevalence of such fraudulent sites, with less than 3 per cent of online pharmacies meeting state and federal laws, according to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP).
In addition, the campaign aims to advise consumers on how to make safe pharmaceutical purchases, with nearly 30 per cent admitting in an FDA survey they lacked confidence about how to make safe online purchase. …
The FDA’s campaign follows a similar effort from the Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies (CSIP) – a collaboration between private companies, such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, and the US government to shut down illegal sites and support awareness efforts to help inform consumers about the dangers of counterfeit or contaminated prescription drugs.