Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be going into detail about each of the eleven standards we use to determine if an online pharmacy is “legit”. To start things off, here’s an explanation of our first standard.

Standard I: Pharmacy Licensure. The pharmacy must be licensed or registered in good standing to operate a pharmacy or engage in the practice of pharmacy in all required jurisdictions.

What does it mean?

This standard means that in order for a pharmacy to be legitimate, it must be licensed and in good standing in all states where a pharmacy license is required in order to dispense prescription drugs. This is not just a LegitScript requirement, but a legal one based on Board of Pharmacy rules. If a pharmacy located in Arizona wants to ship prescription drugs to a patient in Arkansas, the pharmacy has to be licensed in both Arizona and Arkansas. There are five states, like Pennsylvania, that allow the Arizona license to suffice. This is just like the requirement for many businesses that must be licensed (think: liquor stores and funeral parlors) with the appropriate governing body in order to set up shop.

What do we require?

We require that a pharmacy’s license be current, valid and in good standing with the Board of Pharmacy of all states where a pharmacy license is required, if the pharmacy offers to dispense prescription drugs to patients/customers in that state.

Why is this important?

It’s important to make sure the pharmacies we approve are licensed and in good standing with their State Boards of Pharmacy for several reasons: a) if they are not licensed, it is illegal for the pharmacy to dispense drugs, b) licensure provides a mechanism to ensure that the pharmacy is adhering to safety regulations, including providing you with prescription drugs that are real, not expired, et cetera, and c) if the pharmacy has had significant discipline in the recent past, patients could be at risk if the problems continue.

We verify and monitor the pharmacy licenses of every pharmacy that we approve, in every state where the pharmacy offers to dispense prescription drugs. You can be sure that all LegitScript-approved pharmacies are licensed and in good standing with all required State Boards of Pharmacy.

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve updated our Internet pharmacy standards. As before, our standards continue to be recognized by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP).

The revisions aren’t earth-shattering: they are mostly the same as our earlier standards, with some changes in language and codification of existing policies.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be blogging about each of the eleven standards, going into a bit more detail about what they mean, what we require, and why the standard is important. For the time being, a few highlights of what’s new:

• We’ve strengthened our standard regarding having a HIPAA-compliant privacy policy displayed on the website.
• We’ve added language specifying that websites engaged in fraudulent or deceptive business practices are ineligible.
• We require that the website NOT be registered anonymously, absent compelling and extenuating circumstances.
• The person or entity in control of the website must not be affiliated with, or also control, any prescription drug website that violates our standards.

Questions? Feel free to contact us. Or, keep on reading our blog over the next few weeks. We’ll be blogging about each standard individually.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) of Britain has announced the successful raid of several rogue online prescription drug peddlers. The raid, coordinated by INTERPOL, occurred last Wednesday and targeted web-based operations in nine countries that were selling prescription-only medications without the proper authority to do so. The sites offered medications for conditions ranging from diabetes, to male impotence, to obesity without requiring a valid prescription and without being licensed. Besides the fact that such transactions are potentially very harmful depending on the integrity of the drugs and a patient’s medical history, the raid also has larger implications. In carrying out this raid, the MHRA and other involved organizations have shown that the International community will not tolerate rogue Internet pharmacies.

The MHRA stated that they have contacted the appropriate Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to have these sites taken down. LegitScript is hopeful that these ISPs will follow the lead of others, like Directi, which have responded to LegitScript’s alerts of similar sites by swiftly taking them down.

LegitScript strongly supports an international approach in combating the ever-growing problem of these, essentially, online drug dealers. To get an idea of the scope of the problem, read on:

“In many countries, the abuse and trafficking of prescription drugs now equals or exceeds the use of illicitly manufactured heroin, cocaine, amphetamine and opioids”, according to the Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board.

LegitScript applauds the efforts of the MHRA to keep illegal prescription drugs off the online market.

Right after we took down those 500 websites we just blogged about, we added another into the mix: WestCoastDrugs.com, which was advertising through Shopping.com.

Here’s the interesting thing about WestCoastDrugs.com: if you went to their homepage, you only found non-controlled substance prescription drugs. But through Shopping.com, they were advertising controlled substances like Meridia, a weight-loss drug and Schedule IV controlled substance.

We’re pleased to announce the largest Internet pharmacy website shutdown in our history: nearly 500 rogue Internet prescription drug or steroid websites, terminated. These include websites like:

• Steroids-Pharmacy.com and Advanced-Stealth.com, which sold anabolic steroids, Schedule III Controlled Substances, without requiring a prescription, from overseas.
• Diettabs.net and MedicationsStock.com, part of the Meds-Easy network, which offers some real and some counterfeit prescription drugs from overseas without requiring a prescription, including controlled substances.
• DrugsBroker.com, part of the Stimul-Cash network, and DrugstoreOne.com, part of the PharmaMedics network, both of which offered prescription drugs without requiring a valid prescription, usually from overseas.

We’re making progress on an international scope in getting domain name registrars to shut these websites down.

And who’s behind these websites? Let’s take a look at just five previously anonymous WhoIs registrations that have now been exposed.

Steroids-Pharmacy.com

Samuel Aboda Keaparti

Igelopi Kan Ltd.

advanced-stealth@hushmail.com

86/12 Ratchadapisek Road Room 204, Ladyau,

Bangkok, TH 10900

Tel No. +66.22465833

Advanced-Stealth.com

Samuel Aboda Keaparti

Igelopi Kan Ltd.

advanced-stealth@hushmail.com

86/12 Ratchadapisek Road Room 204, Ladyau,

Bangkok, TH 10900

Tel No. +66.22465833

200drugs.com

Alex Chepurnoy

alexch@bk.ru

Severniy avenue 10/1 flat 101

Saint-Petersburg, Russia 194354

Tel No. +7.8122962603

PillSeller.com

Dmitry Balandin

dm-balandin@yandex.ru

Moskva, RU 107143

Tel No. +7.9030000000

In the middle of verifying the legitimate Internet pharmacies and exposing the illicit ones, we like to take some time now and then to chuckle about some pretty funny domain names for Internet pharmacies. So here’s the beginning of a tradition: Every year, we’ll release our Top Five Funniest Rogue Internet Pharmacies.

Here’s the top five, in reverse order, for 2008.

5. Givebuckyachance.com. Who is Bucky, and why should we give him a chance? Really folks, this is no name for a pharmacy. Poor Bucky. Bucky’s life is apparently so tough that he needs to join the “Indian Drugs” rogue Internet pharmacy network to get ahead. We’d like to give Bucky a chance, but we’ll pass on this website, which offers to dispense prescription drugs in violation of several laws, and without requiring a prescription. The website is actually registered to Uli Brau in Afghanistan.

4. BandjDrugPusher.com. Well. The name just doesn’t pull punches, does it? This website is an affiliate of rogue network XL Pharmacy, which also offers prescription drugs from India without requiring a valid prescription. Does that sound like drug pushing? It sure does to us. Still, we’d sure like to know who “B and J” are. (Could “B” be Bill Todd, the website’s registrant? Stay tuned.) Drugs-Dealer.com, an affiliate of Affiliate Pharmacy Network, is another good one.

3. BlackMarketMeds.com. Now, if there’s an Internet pharmacy whose name inspires legitimacy, this one is it:
bq. “Hello, Black Market Meds, may I help you?”

“Yes, do you have Tramadol?”

“Yes, but only the fake stuff. We don’t carry any real drugs. Are you paying with insurance, or out of pocket?”

The website is an affiliate of rogue network RxPayouts.com which doesn’t require a prescription prior to dispensing prescription drugs. Underground-pharmacy.com is a good one along these lines.

2. DoctorDuck.com. The website’s been terminated (it was an affiliate of “Canadian Pharmacy”) but when it was up, we had the odd feeling that the physician writing prescriptions for this website may have been something of a quack. (Groan.)

1. WallofFear.com Again, this one has been terminated (also a “Canadian Pharmacy” affiliate). Apparently, this pharmacy’s customers are cowered outside the pharmacy, trembling with fright: are the prescription drugs really FDA-approved? (Answer: No, they are counterfeit, in fact.) But really…why would anybody in their right mind purchase prescription drugs from an Internet pharmacy called “Wall of Fear”? (We can see it being used as the name for an online dating site, but that’s a different story.)

Honorable Mention: Finally, for the sheer image it conveys, we give the Honorable Mention to WorkingGranniesMeds4Less.com Enough said.

The Industry Standard reports that a former Internet pharmacy affiliate marketer named Mike Geiger was a featured speaker at the WebbyConnect conference a few weeks ago. The Standard says that Gieger:

used to have what sounded like a thriving side business setting up sites that sent affiliate traffic to illicit pharmaceutical sites.

The Standard reports that Gieger, in his presentation,

…was unrepentant about his role in the trade. Affiliate marketing is a “completely legit business,” he said, and went on to describe himself as a mere middleman uninvolved with the actual distribution of the drugs. “Why did I choose pharmaceuticals? It was very simple,” he said. “[It was] because I would get up to 45% of whatever I sold.”

Here’s a simple question. First, let’s assume that the website Gieger operated was selling controlled substances like Xanax, Phentermine, or Ambien without a valid prescription, or any prescription at all. (Although frankly, the same point can be made if the drugs are any prescription drugs, even non-controlled ones.)

What’s the difference between what Gieger was doing and a person who stands on a street corner and says, “Hey kid…come with me and I’ll take you to the crack house down the street where you can get some really good stuff,” and then pockets 45% of the crack cocaine sale without ever touching the drugs?

The answer is, there’s no difference. The guy on the street corner can also claim that he’s not the one actually distributing the drugs. But does that absolve him of responsibility for the illicit distribution? Of course not: he’s the point man, the lookout for customers, the facilitator of the transaction. He’s the one that enables the actual distributor to make the sale and hide behind a shield of anonymity.

The same concept is at work for affiliates of rogue Internet pharmacy networks. The affiliate marketer who sets up a website selling these drugs may not handle or dispense the actual drugs. But he’s part of the drug dealing scheme or conspiracy: he recruits the customers and shares responsibility for the sale.

Gieger’s protestation that he lacks any responsibility for the transaction should not go unchallenged. And it’s an important wake-up call for those in the policy arena who want to see a reduction in the number of websites illicitly offering controlled substance prescription drugs.