Questions about website pharmacy drug quality

January 01, 0001

Questions about website pharmacy drug quality

Internet-sourced drugs are often considered suspect. The World Health Organization reports that drugs from websites that conceal their physical address are counterfeit in over 50 percent of cases; the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) works with the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) to regularly update a list of websites likely to sell drugs that are illegal or of questionable quality. This study by researchers from the USA examines drug purchasing over the Internet, by comparing the sales of five popular drugs from a selection of websites stratified by NABP or other ratings. The drugs were assessed for price, conditions of purchase, and basic quality. Prices and conditions of purchase varied widely. Some websites advertised single pills while others only permitted the purchase of large quantities. Not all websites delivered the exact drugs ordered, some delivered no drugs at all; many websites shipped from multiple international locations, and from locations that were different from those advertised on the websites. All drug samples were tested against approved U.S. brand formulations using Raman spectrometry.

Many (17) websites substituted drugs, often in different formulations from the brands requested. These drugs, some of which were probably generics or perhaps non- bioequivalent copy versions, could not be assessed accurately. Of those drugs that could be assessed, none failed from "approved", "legally compliant" or "not recommended" websites (0 out of 86), whereas 8.6% (3 out of 35) failed from "highly not recommended" and unidentifiable websites.

The researchers concluded: "Of those drugs that could be assessed, all except Viagra passed spectrometry testing. Of those that failed, few could be identified either by a country of manufacture listed on the packaging, or by the physical location of the website pharmacy. If confirmed by future studies on other drug samples, then U.S. consumers should be able to reduce their risk by relying on credentialing agencies recommended lists and by using common sense when examining packaging and pills."

This is an area where controls can be of great benefit.

For the full abstract, click here.

PLoS ONE 5(8):e12199 13 August 2010 © 2010 Bate, Hess
Assessing Website Pharmacy Drug Quality: Safer Than You Think?. Roger Bate and Kimberly Hess. Correspondence to Roger Bate: [email protected]

Category: HSR. Health Services Research. Keywords: website, pharmacy, drug, quality, website analyses, journal watch.
Synopsis edited by Dr Stephen Wilkinson, Melbourne, Australia. Posted on Global Family Doctor 17 September 2010

Pearls are an independent product of the Cochrane primary care group and are meant for educational use and not to guide clinical care.