We just crunched some interesting data about rogue Internet pharmacies and domain name registrars.

As some of our readers know, domain name registrars (like GoDaddy, eNom, NetworkSolutions, etc.) have the ability to shut down websites for illegal behavior, and are contractually obligated to make sure that the websites they sponsor aren’t engaged in illegal activity.

LegitScript began notifying registrars about a few rogue Internet pharmacies in the middle of 2008, starting with about 150 illegal anabolic sites. Of the eight registrars we notified about these sites, six of the eight ended up shutting the sites down (most were registered to GoDaddy). Since then, we have had rogue Internet pharmacies terminated by a variety of other registrars including Joker.com, FastDomain, NetworkSolutions and several others.

But we wanted to conduct a more in-depth analysis, so we conducted a sort of pilot project where we focused (primarily, but not exclusively) on notifying one registrar in particular: Directi, a leading registrar located in India.

In conducting this pilot project, our primary question wasn’t just about how many illegal websites we could get shut down. Rather, we were interested in understanding: If we terminate a whole bunch of sites sponsored by one registrar, how will the rogue Internet pharmacies respond?

The response has been interesting, and telling.

Aout six months ago, roughly 10% of rogue Internet pharmacies in our database were sponsored by Directi. Today, that number is down to about 0.5%, about one out of every 200, despite Directi’s status as the world’s 10th largest registrar. (Keep in mind that LegitScript maintains the world’s largest public database of non-spam rogue Internet pharmacies, with about 36,000 domains on our list, so it’s a pretty good representative sample.)

What’s also fascinating is that of the websites Directi shut down at our request, 75% of them have remained offline. That’s pretty good: a traditional concern among law enforcement about terminating sites is that if one registrar shuts down a site, it will just pop back up elsewhere. Our efforts have proven that that is not true.

But the most interesting factoid is how the rogue Internet pharmacies responded. Of the 25% that are back online, more than 1/3 went to eNom. It’s true that eNom is the second-largest registrar in the world, so statistically, we expected that some rogue sites would naturally choose eNom. However, the trend was much stronger than we anticipated.

These data indicate that rogue Internet pharmacy operators know that they can’t consider Directi a safe haven. Based on that, we consider our pilot project a success, and look forward to expanding it to other registrars.

KGET in Bakersfield, California ran an interesting story this morning about a woman who was killed in a automobile crash. Her family blames her addiction to Soma, which they say she was getting online:

(The woman’s daughter) says her mom started taking a muscle relaxer called Soma after she hurt her back skiing. But 44-yr-old Laura Clearwater’s family says she quickly became addicted. They say the drug was originally prescribed by a doctor, but then Clearwater started ordering the drugs from an online pharmacy and every week pills arrived at their doorstep.

The article goes on to say that the family thinks that Ms. Clearwater’s addiction to Soma may have been a contributing cause to the accident:

Her family doesn’t know the exact cause of the crash but says they want to warn others about the power of prescription drugs and the deadly addiction that stole their mother’s life. The corner’s office says it has not determined if drugs or alcohol played a role in the crash.

It’s important to acknowledge, of course, what we don’t know from the article: whether Ms. Clearwater was, in fact, under the influence of Soma (which is an addictive drug) at the time of the accident, which online pharmacy was used, whether the online pharmacy is domestic or foreign, which affiliate pharmacy network was involved, and whether it was sending the drugs on the basis of a valid prescription or not.

Yet, we can point out some important facts and draw some safe conclusions. First, Soma is addictive, and along with tramadol (Ultram) and Fioricet, is among the most drugs that are most widely marketed online without a valid prescription being required. Why? It’s because those drugs are a few in a small but dangerous category: recognized as addictive on the prescribing labels, they are nevertheless not federally controlled substances, and thus do not fall under the direct purview of the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

Second, although we don’t know if Ms. Clearwater was under the influence of Soma at the time of the accident, there’s no question that some people fighting drug addictions drive under the influence of those drugs, and that driving under the influence of drugs (including prescription drugs that alter judgment or reaction time) can be just as dangerous as driving under the influence of alcohol. Soma, a muscle relaxant, definitely falls under this category.

Third, the article refers to an important illicit practice commonly used by rogue online pharmacies:

…Clearwater started ordering the drugs from an online pharmacy and every week pills arrived at their doorstep.

We’re seeing this more and more: a very aggressive “automatic refill” practice that doesn’t take into account whether the patient has a genuine need for the drugs, but operates as nothing more than a form of online drug pushing (with automatic credit card debits, of course!). Legitimate Internet pharmacies refill prescriptions as well, so this point isn’t dispositive, but it suggests that a closer look at the online pharmacy’s refill policies is warranted.

Finally, articles like these raise an important question about domain name registrars. A domain name registrar like GoDaddy or eNom doesn’t, in our view, have any potential legal liability for websites like these if they don’t know about the content. After all, registrars can’t be expected to monitor the content of every website they sponsor.

However, domain name registrars have the ability to terminate or suspend websites engaged in illicit activities that they know about. They regularly do this for spam websites, for example.

What if the registrar had been notified by LegitScript that the online pharmacy it was sponsoring was selling these addictive prescription drugs without requiring a valid prescription, yet declined to terminate or suspend the website? Although there are plenty of “causation” issues to be resolved (whether the drugs played a contributing role in the crash), if a registrar knew about the illicit online pharmacy, declined to terminate or suspend the website and continued to profit from the website’s registration, and the online pharmacy subsequently sold the drugs without a valid prescription…

You get the point.

LegitScript is pleased to announce approval of rxproblemsolvers.com, the Internet presence of The Compounding Shoppe, a licensed pharmacy in Alabama.

As its name suggests, The Compounding Shoppe focuses on the compounding of prescription medicines. The pharmacy has been in the family for three generations, and is accredited by the Pharmacy Compounding Accreditation Board. The Pharmacist-in-Charge is also a member and a full fellow of the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists.

LegitScript has verified that rxproblemsolvers.com meets LegitScript’s standards for online pharmacy website legality and safety.

The Compounding Shoppe specializes in pharmacy compounding, or the custom-making of medicines based on a prescription order from their doctor. Each pharmacist is an expert in hormone replacement therapy and specializes in pain management focused on the unique needs of each patient. The pharmacy also focuses on wellness consultations, in which the pharmacy’s naturopathic pharmacist helps people develop rational therapy plans to return to wellness.

LegitScript is pleased to recognize rxproblemsolvers.com as a legitimate pharmacy website that meets LegitScript’s standards, which are recognized by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.

Rogue Internet pharmacies are starting to take a new approach: deceptively mimicking search engine design to appear credible, and presumably snatching your username and password in the process.

Take this recent search result for “Ambien No Prescription”. You click on the result, and it might appear as if the Google search page simply refreshed…and you have a list of recommended online pharmacies.

The problem is, all of these are rogue Internet pharmacies, and you aren’t at google.com any longer. Rather, you are actually at suche-project.eu, registered to somebody in Poland. But it sure looks like you are at Google…and you might be tempted to input your username and password in the upper right-hand corner. (Identity theft warning!)

Pharma2U.com has been exposed as selling counterfeit drugs by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) from the United Kingdom.

LegitScript has already designated the website as a “rogue” Internet pharmacy in late 2008.

The BBC news article reported that:

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said a couple in their 60s were being questioned. It said the drugs were the “tip of the iceberg” of an expected multi-million-pound illegal online medicine business. The raids, carried out with help of Staffordshire Police, resulted from an MHRA investigation into the website Pharma2u.com which sells popular prescription drugs.

The Internet pharmacy had claimed it’s products were legitimate:

All products that are prescribed by our European doctors and dispensed by our fully qualified pharmacies are genuine products.

LegitScript had designated this UK-based Internet “pharmacy” as a rogue several months ago, based on that fact that it did not require a valid prescription, and offered to import prescription-only drugs into the United States in violation of federal law.