SPAM That Could Be Dangerous
#1
08-29-2007, 09:05 AM
SPAM That Could Be Dangerous
This is a story put out by CNET that illustrates a study on the dangers of online pharmacies. I can tell you from personal experiance that many of your kids are using these sources for different pills they think they need. Kids are using these sources for everything from sexual stimulants to weight loss and muscle building drugs.
SPAM THAT CAN KILL YOU
Everyone hates spam. In particular, I dislike the spam that advertises low, low prices on brand-name pharmaceuticals. Vicodin. Viagra. You name it. Now there's a study out from San Francisco-based MarkMonitor, a company in the business of protecting brands online, that finds those who patronize unsolicited online pharmacies risk not only possible identity theft, but their personal health as well. It's all the more reason to aggressively filter your spam, or simply stay away from nonaccredited online pharmacies that show up in Google search results. If the prices are too good to be true, chances are they're not selling you the legitimate drugs you're supposed to be taking.
Is it a problem? Yeah
Take the case of Marcia Bergeron, who, at the time of her death, had in her body a sedative, acetaminophen, an antidepressant, cough medicine, and a muscle relaxant. The 58-year-old British Columbia resident also had dangerously high levels of aluminum, phosphorus, titanium, tin, strontium, arsenic, and other metals in her liver. How did she get toxic amounts of metal in her system? Investigators examined her computer after her death and found she'd been shopping around the Internet for medications and ended up with counterfeits instead.
There's also the case of 19-year-old Jason Surks who overdosed on online-ordered Xanax in 2003. His father, Mark Surks, said, "My son's connection was not some creep on a street corner. All he had to do was point his Internet browser at any number of Web sites." Jason Surks had ordered Xanax without a prescription from a Mexico-based pharmacy and was even enrolled on their automatic renewal plan.
The 58-year-old British Columbia resident also had dangerously high levels of aluminum, phosphorus, titanium, tin, strontium, arsenic, and other metals in her liver. Investigators examined her computer and found she'd been shopping around the Internet for medications and ended up with counterfeits instead.
Too good to be true
These are two very different scenarios--one person being poisoned by bad drugs, and someone else obtaining a controlled substance without a prescription--but they illustrate the potential dangers in answering unsolicited e-mail promising brand-name drugs for less. Are these online drugs good deals? Fred Felman, chief marketing officer for MarkMonitor, told me that, for their survey, "we chose one drug brand, same quantity, same dosage across all the listings, and we compared the prices. On the VIPPS-certified sites [the cost] was $10.85 per pill, and on the noncertified the site, the average was about $2.72." To become a Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Site (VIPPS), a pharmacy must comply with the licensing and inspection requirements of their state and each state to which they dispense pharmaceuticals, according to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) . Of the 3,160 sites surveyed by MarkMonitor, only four were VIPPS certified.
Felman said simple logic will tell you these are often not real deals. "For the particular drug we chose, there's about a 45 to 46 percent discount available from the manufacturer all the way to the consumer, for all the channels of distribution. So, at a 75 percent discount, you know this particular drug...has to be either a fake or a stolen drug. Maybe it's an alternative, herbal preparation, maybe it's expired--or even diluted, maybe they mashed it up and mixed it with another drug. But it's likely not what you ordered." MarkMonitor traced online pharmacies to servers to hosted mostly within the United States, with the United Kingdom a distant second.
Our prices have never been lower
Separate from online pharmacies are online drug exchanges. "Those guys sell bulk pharmaceuticals," said Felman. "What we found there is 390 listings over the four-week period of the survey, drugs that were very low priced. Even lower than we found on these pharmacies that were targeting consumers." MarkMonitor traced these exchanges to services mostly in China and the Russian Federation.
So is it safe to order drugs online? Felman says yes, but do not start with the search of that drug through a search engine.
And the amounts of drugs being sold were huge; these guys are the wholesale business. "You could find 50 million of this pill or 25 million of that pill per year. This is where we suspect that some of the shiftier pharmacies are actually sourcing some of their goods." In other words, the tainted supply often starts at the exchanges and works its way down to the smaller pharmacies.
People are getting hurt
"There was an article recently in a publication called Pharmaceutical Executive. They looked at this problem and found stuff in these [large batches of drugs] and alternative supplies [of brand-name drugs that are] composed of the paint that they use to put lines on the roadway. And boric acid and other pretty awful things."
This is not just an issue for the person buying the tainted drugs, but for the manufacturers themselves. "When consumers are hurt, they're much less likely to purchase that brand or have loyalty toward it." I personally think pharmaceutical profits are obscene, but when a good drug gets spoofed and people die, then more people may also die when that drug is no longer available, forced off the market.
Is anyone policing these guys?
States such as Virginia and Kentucky now require that all pharmacies--even those online that ship drugs into their states--must first be certified. Other states considering online pharmacy regulation include Idaho, Wisconsin, Arkansas, and Texas. There is no national law pending. Felman says "I think everyone's doing the right thing, but they're doing it slowly. That's the nature of change, so it really begs for the consumer to apply the caveat emptor thing and be very careful when buying things that could affect their health and well being, especially drugs online."
So is it safe to order drugs online? Felman says yes, but do not start by searching for the drug through a search engine. "I'd probably go to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) and look through their list of VIPPS-certified pharmacies first. If I have health insurance, I might contact my insurance company and ask what online pharmacy they recommend. If I'm trying to save money, I might go to [a] program that allows you to choose 90-day options that actually reduce the cost of those drugs. I don't think I would start my search for a drug in a Google or Yahoo search box. That's probably not a good idea."
Have you ever or would you in the future order drugs over the Internet? TalkBack to me.
SPAM THAT CAN KILL YOU
Everyone hates spam. In particular, I dislike the spam that advertises low, low prices on brand-name pharmaceuticals. Vicodin. Viagra. You name it. Now there's a study out from San Francisco-based MarkMonitor, a company in the business of protecting brands online, that finds those who patronize unsolicited online pharmacies risk not only possible identity theft, but their personal health as well. It's all the more reason to aggressively filter your spam, or simply stay away from nonaccredited online pharmacies that show up in Google search results. If the prices are too good to be true, chances are they're not selling you the legitimate drugs you're supposed to be taking.
Is it a problem? Yeah
Take the case of Marcia Bergeron, who, at the time of her death, had in her body a sedative, acetaminophen, an antidepressant, cough medicine, and a muscle relaxant. The 58-year-old British Columbia resident also had dangerously high levels of aluminum, phosphorus, titanium, tin, strontium, arsenic, and other metals in her liver. How did she get toxic amounts of metal in her system? Investigators examined her computer after her death and found she'd been shopping around the Internet for medications and ended up with counterfeits instead.
There's also the case of 19-year-old Jason Surks who overdosed on online-ordered Xanax in 2003. His father, Mark Surks, said, "My son's connection was not some creep on a street corner. All he had to do was point his Internet browser at any number of Web sites." Jason Surks had ordered Xanax without a prescription from a Mexico-based pharmacy and was even enrolled on their automatic renewal plan.
The 58-year-old British Columbia resident also had dangerously high levels of aluminum, phosphorus, titanium, tin, strontium, arsenic, and other metals in her liver. Investigators examined her computer and found she'd been shopping around the Internet for medications and ended up with counterfeits instead.
Too good to be true
These are two very different scenarios--one person being poisoned by bad drugs, and someone else obtaining a controlled substance without a prescription--but they illustrate the potential dangers in answering unsolicited e-mail promising brand-name drugs for less. Are these online drugs good deals? Fred Felman, chief marketing officer for MarkMonitor, told me that, for their survey, "we chose one drug brand, same quantity, same dosage across all the listings, and we compared the prices. On the VIPPS-certified sites [the cost] was $10.85 per pill, and on the noncertified the site, the average was about $2.72." To become a Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Site (VIPPS), a pharmacy must comply with the licensing and inspection requirements of their state and each state to which they dispense pharmaceuticals, according to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) . Of the 3,160 sites surveyed by MarkMonitor, only four were VIPPS certified.
Felman said simple logic will tell you these are often not real deals. "For the particular drug we chose, there's about a 45 to 46 percent discount available from the manufacturer all the way to the consumer, for all the channels of distribution. So, at a 75 percent discount, you know this particular drug...has to be either a fake or a stolen drug. Maybe it's an alternative, herbal preparation, maybe it's expired--or even diluted, maybe they mashed it up and mixed it with another drug. But it's likely not what you ordered." MarkMonitor traced online pharmacies to servers to hosted mostly within the United States, with the United Kingdom a distant second.
Our prices have never been lower
Separate from online pharmacies are online drug exchanges. "Those guys sell bulk pharmaceuticals," said Felman. "What we found there is 390 listings over the four-week period of the survey, drugs that were very low priced. Even lower than we found on these pharmacies that were targeting consumers." MarkMonitor traced these exchanges to services mostly in China and the Russian Federation.
So is it safe to order drugs online? Felman says yes, but do not start with the search of that drug through a search engine.
And the amounts of drugs being sold were huge; these guys are the wholesale business. "You could find 50 million of this pill or 25 million of that pill per year. This is where we suspect that some of the shiftier pharmacies are actually sourcing some of their goods." In other words, the tainted supply often starts at the exchanges and works its way down to the smaller pharmacies.
People are getting hurt
"There was an article recently in a publication called Pharmaceutical Executive. They looked at this problem and found stuff in these [large batches of drugs] and alternative supplies [of brand-name drugs that are] composed of the paint that they use to put lines on the roadway. And boric acid and other pretty awful things."
This is not just an issue for the person buying the tainted drugs, but for the manufacturers themselves. "When consumers are hurt, they're much less likely to purchase that brand or have loyalty toward it." I personally think pharmaceutical profits are obscene, but when a good drug gets spoofed and people die, then more people may also die when that drug is no longer available, forced off the market.
Is anyone policing these guys?
States such as Virginia and Kentucky now require that all pharmacies--even those online that ship drugs into their states--must first be certified. Other states considering online pharmacy regulation include Idaho, Wisconsin, Arkansas, and Texas. There is no national law pending. Felman says "I think everyone's doing the right thing, but they're doing it slowly. That's the nature of change, so it really begs for the consumer to apply the caveat emptor thing and be very careful when buying things that could affect their health and well being, especially drugs online."
So is it safe to order drugs online? Felman says yes, but do not start by searching for the drug through a search engine. "I'd probably go to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) and look through their list of VIPPS-certified pharmacies first. If I have health insurance, I might contact my insurance company and ask what online pharmacy they recommend. If I'm trying to save money, I might go to [a] program that allows you to choose 90-day options that actually reduce the cost of those drugs. I don't think I would start my search for a drug in a Google or Yahoo search box. That's probably not a good idea."
Have you ever or would you in the future order drugs over the Internet? TalkBack to me.
