For some people, buying prescription drugs online offers advantages not available from a local drugstore, including:

• greater availability of drugs for shut-in people or those who live far from the pharmacy
• the ease of comparative shopping among many sites to find the best prices and products
• greater convenience and variety of products
• easier access to written product information and references to other sources than in traditional storefront pharmacies
• the ability for consumers to order products and consult with a pharmacist in the privacy of their homes

      Internet drug shopping also purports to save consumers money. In some cases this is true. A survey in the fall of 1999 by Consumer Reports showed that buyers could save as much as 29 percent by obtaining certain drugs online. But another study, conducted in 1999 by the University of Pennsylvania and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, tracked Internet sales of Viagra and Propecia and found that the two drugs were an average of 10 percent more expensive online than at local Philadelphia-area pharmacies.

      In another part of that study, researchers Bernard Bloom, Ph.D., and Ronald Iannocone found that 37 of the 46 sites they examined either required a prescription from a personal physician or offered to prescribe a medication based solely on a questionnaire. But nine sites, all based outside the United States, did not require a prescription. The researchers also found that even when Websites offered a questionnaire with the promise that a physician would review the form, nothing was generally known about the doctor's qualifications, and it was easy for users to provide false information to obtain a prescription.

      Consumers seeking health products online can find dozens of sites that FDA officials say are legally questionable. A number of them specialize in providing drugs such as Viagra, the baldness therapy Propecia (finasteride), or the weight-loss treatment Xenical (orlistat). Others, based in foreign countries, promise to deliver prescription drugs at a much cheaper price than their domestic cost, but the drugs may be different from those approved in the United States or may be past their expiration dates. Still other sites make fraudulent health claims or blatantly advertise that a customer can buy drugs with no prescription. Online drug sites can now be located in nearly any state or country having phone lines.

      Some feel new laws will be needed to improve this situation. "Currently, there is nothing to require a drug-dispensing Website to disclose anything to the public," says Rep. Ron Klink (D-Pa.), who is sponsoring Internet pharmacy legislation. "Buyers have no way of knowing whether a site is licensed or if the site uses licensed doctors or pharmacists or even in what state they are located." Klink's bill would require Internet-based pharmacies to list the name, address and phone number of the principal place of business, the name of each pharmacist and health professional who provides medical consultation, and the states where the pharmacy, pharmacists, and other health professionals are licensed.

      Certain pharmacy industry representatives oppose legislation or additional powers for regulatory agencies on the premise that current laws are sufficient to address the problem. "There are [controls] already in place for regulating pharmaceutical sales," says Mary Ann Wagner, vice president of pharmacy regulatory affairs for the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. "That hasn't changed."

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Information taken from the U. S. Food and Drug Administration
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville MD 20857-0001
http://www.fda.gov