Limbu, Lam B. and Bruce A. Huhmann, “Illicit Online Pharmacies: A Scoping Review”

Abstract This scoping review presents the extent and nature of the body of literature on illicit online pharmacies (IOPs) and identifies research gaps. Using the five-step framework developed by Arksey and O’Malley, we searched PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, CINAHL, Science Direct and PsycInfo to retrieve relevant studies published in English in peer-reviewed journals. The…

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Jędrejko, Karol et al, “Unauthorized ingredients in ‘nootropic’ dietary supplements: A review of the history, pharmacology, prevalence, international regulations, and potential as doping agents”

Abstract The first nootropic prohibited in sport was fonturacetam (4-phenylpiracetam, carphedon) in 1998. Presented here 25 years later is a broad-scale consideration of the history, pharmacology, prevalence, regulations, and doping potential of nootropics viewed through a lens of 50 selected dietary supplements (DS) marketed as “cognitive enhancement,” “brain health,” “brain boosters,” or “nootropics,” with a focus…

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O’Donnell J, Tanz LJ, Gladden RM, Davis NL, Bitting J. Trends in and Characteristics of Drug Overdose Deaths Involving Illicitly Manufactured Fentanyls — United States, 2019–2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. ePub: 14 December 2021.

Summary What is already known about this topic? Synthetic opioids, including illicitly manufactured fentanyls (IMFs), were involved in 64% of >100,000 estimated U.S. drug overdose deaths during May 2020–April 2021. What is added by this report? During 2019–2020, IMF-involved overdose deaths increased sharply in midwestern, southern, and western jurisdictions. During 2020, approximately 40% of IMF-involved…

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Conti R, Dusetzina S. B. , and Sachs R. “How The ACA Reframed The Prescription Drug Market And Set The Stage For Current Reform Efforts.” Health Affairs. VOL. 39, NO. 3 (March 2020)

Abstract The Affordable Care Act contained a range of provisions that altered prescription drug access and affordability for patients, payers, and providers. Yet the act stopped short of instituting systemic changes in the pricing of drugs, in part to address concerns that more fundamental changes might disrupt the development of new medicines. Looking back a…

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Pitts, Peter J. “The Spreading Cancer of Counterfeit Drugs, Pharmaceutical Fakery Metastasizes from Lifestyle to Lifesaving Medicines,” Journal of Commercial Biotechnology (2020) 25(3), 20–14. doi: 10.5912/jcb940

INTRODUCTION Just as the coronavirus mutates to survive and thrive, so to do the purveyors of counterfeit medicines – with their high-speed “host” being the digi-tization of patient care. The future is now. So, how do we balance moving forward with user-friendly digitization, telemedicine and virtual healthcare delivery while simultaneously recognizing the unintended consequences of…

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Acri K (2020) State Pharmaceutical Importation Programmes: an Analysis of the Cost‐Effectiveness

This research paper (available here in pdf form), which was published in Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research in March 2020.   State Pharmaceutical Importation Programmes: an Analysis of the Cost‐Effectiveness Author: Dr. Kristina M.L. Acri née Lybecker, Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute and Associate Professor of Economics at Colorado College in Colorado Springs Abstract: This…

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Research Study Confirms That Cheap And Safe Drug Importation Is Not Feasible

Research Study Confirms That Cheap And Safe Drug Importation Is Not Feasible Read the abstract for Dr. Acri’s article. In March 2020, the Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research, an official journal of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, published a study by Dr. Kristina M.L. Acri née Lybecker titled “State Pharmaceutical Importation Programmes: An Analysis of…

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Acri née Lybecker, Kristina M.L., State Pharmaceutical Importation Programs: An Analysis of the Cost Effectiveness (June 12, 2019). Colorado College Working Paper 2019-02 June 2019.

Abstract Recently proposed legislation in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and West Virginia aims to reduce spending on pharmaceuticals by importing them from Canada. To examine the cost effectiveness of importation, this study analyzes 24 drugs from an online Canadian supplier, accounting for the cost savings, the cost of testing, the…

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