Setting the Record Straight

Over the last year, a company that advocates for illegal prescription drug importation, called PharmacyChecker, has repeatedly engaged in false and highly personal attacks against LegitScript and its President, John Horton. It’s not a rare situation in this information age: people can plaster whatever accusations they want all over the Internet, whether or not they are true.

PharmacyChecker has repeatedly been informed that its allegations are false, yet declines to remove the misleading information. So let’s set the record straight.

First, PharmacyChecker is a competitor. Google, which used to require Internet pharmacy advertisers to be PharmacyChecker-approved, terminated its contract with PharmacyChecker (followed by Yahoo and Microsoft), and then hired LegitScript to monitor Google’s Internet pharmacy ads in the US. After that, the personal attacks against us started.

Second, before PharmacyChecker lost the Google contract, multiple sources (including LegitScript) revealed that PharmacyChecker had approved Internet pharmacies that were selling prescription drugs without a prescription. Some of these were the subject of counterfeit drug warnings in the U.S. or Canada. LegitScript was one of the parties responsible for exposing this information.

Third, it’s important to take an objective look at what and whom PharmacyChecker advocates for. The company promotes itself as an impartial evaluator of Internet pharmacies, but expends significant energy insisting that foreign drug suppliers are safe, despite being illegal to order from, and despite the fact that some of these supply chains have been the subject of counterfeit drug warnings. The problem here is, companies that provide certification services are supposed to impartially apply their standards, not act as a advocate on behalf of those whom they are supposed to monitor. A portion of PharmacyChecker’s revenue comes from foreign Internet pharmacies that market themselves as “Canadian,” but that are really supplying drugs from India, Turkey, Singapore and other locations, not Canada.

Just look at PharmacyChecker’s track record of certifying unsafe Internet pharmacies. Among the Internet pharmacies that PharmacyChecker has approved:

  • RxNorth.com (selling counterfeit drugs);
  • pharmnet.com (advertising controlled substances that were sold without a prescription from India);
  • livewellrx.com (which sold an undercover “13 year old” muscle relaxants without a valid prescription);
  • pillsbargain.com (which did not require a valid prescription for tramadol);
  • tenpharmastores.com (which linked to websites offering Vicodin without a prescription);
  • shopeastwest.com (listed on PharmacyChecker’s own website, and selling prescription drugs without a prescription from India);
  • top10pharma.com (selling drugs without a valid prescription), and more.

    • All of these websites were PharmacyChecker-approved.

After LegitScript documented that information, Tod Cooperman (PharmacyChecker president) and Gabriel Levitt (PharmacyChecker VP) published claims against John Horton that are completely untrue. They falsely imply that there is, or may be, a congressional investigation against LegitScript or against John Horton for misuse of his (former) government position at the White House. The truth: there is not, and never has been, any such investigation, although Cooperman and Levitt have tried (and failed) to instigate one, even sending a letter to Congress that included false accusations. Cooperman and Levitt even went so far as to insinuate that John Horton criminally accepted bribes from the pharmaceutical industry while in government –– a totally false allegation with zero basis in fact. The list of desperate, untrue accusations goes on.

So why is this happening? LegitScript has helped put thousands of illicit foreign (and domestic) pharmaceutical suppliers’ websites out of business or prevented them from advertising online. PharmacyChecker is a key supporter of that industry, and advocates for it strongly –– we presume on a paid basis. But those who accept PharmacyChecker’s self-promotion as a selfless, altruistic advocate for people who can’t afford their medications, should remember that PharmacyChecker is a for-profit business, and its business interests are closely tied to those of foreign drug suppliers.

So, if you’ve read the defamatory accusations against LegitScript and John Horton, keep this in mind: PharmacyChecker “verified” Internet pharmacies as legitimate that were the subject of counterfeit drug warnings and were selling drugs without a prescription – not just one or two websites, but multiple websites. It should come as no surprise that they are willing to disseminate outright lies about a competitor.

(LegitScript has also prepared a more detailed point-by-point response for interested parties.)