Study Investigates Online Rogue Pharmacies

A new study shows online rogue pharmacies using North American and Western European web hosting while fulfilling orders from other regions of the world.

A new study shows online rogue pharmacies using North American and Western European web hosting while fulfilling orders from other regions of the world.

A San Francisco based brand protection company has conducted a study of counterfeit products sold online including pirated digital content, consumer goods and pharmaceuticals, measuring online traffic trends to rogue sites.

The 26 rogue drug sellers had combined traffic of more than an average of 141,000 visits per day or more than 51 million visits per year, concludes the report.

The study found that that while a majority of sites were hosted in North America or Western Europe, payment processing and order fulfillment took place in countries other than the one used to host the site or register its domain name.

The study categorized rogue drug domains as those that offered off-brand versions of prescription drugs that are not available in generic form in the U.S., targeted the U.S. market by providing pricing in U.S. currency, and did not require prescriptions.

The study is available on the company’s website.