Importation
Questions and Answers on Medicine Importation
Question: What’s the difference between a Canadian retail pharmacy you can drive over the border to patronize and a “Canadian online pharmacy” that sends you medicine in the mail?
Answer: A Canadian web pharmacy is probably just a shipping company that claims to be a pharmacy, that may not even really be in Canada.
Question: Where do the medicines you get from a “Canadian online pharmacy” come from?
Answer: All around the world, but not from Canada.
The USFDA’s seized medications show that nearly half the imported drugs intercepted from four foreign countries were labeled as “Canadian.” But not only that, 85% of the medicines came from 27 countries around the globe, and tested drugs were found to be counterfeit. Learn more>
Question: Don’t Canadian online pharmacies provide great deals because they source medicine from safe Tier One countries like Canada, Australia and England?
Answer: No. Counterfeit medicine with no active ingredients, or cheaper and inappropriate ingredients, are the way they make the big bucks while tricking you into thinking youv’e gotten a great deal.
So-called Canadian web pharmacies (that actually hold no pharmacy license) assure customers that their drug imports are only from countries designated as Tier One by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. However, the map to the left shows a selection of counterfeit medicine incidents that have occurred in Canada, Israel, and the European Union. Incidents have also occurred in the other Tier One countries not seen on the map. Some incidents have occurred in more than one country, such as the counterfeit cancer medication described above that traveled through several EU countries before it arrived in the US at the behest of a so-called Canadian online pharmacy. Learn more>
Question: Can’t the FDA and Health Canada protect me from danger if I buy medicines from outside the U.S.?
Answer: No.Says the FDA, “The FDA cannot help you if you have problems with medicine you get from outside U.S. regulation and oversight.”
Additionally medicines that are shipped between countries aren’t required to be inspected for authenticity. Health Canada isn’t going to check to make sure the medicines you receive are authentic, neither are the governments of any other country and that is most likely where your packages are coming from anyway.Learn more
Question: Isn’t the medicine I get from a “Canadian online pharmacy” just from the pile of medications that are price-fixed by the Canadian government? Aren’t they authentic Canadian medicines.
Answer: No. Those medications may never have even seen a maple leaf flag.
Even the even the Canadian government is warning their people about these websites. If they don’t want their people to buy medicine from so-called “Canadian online pharmacies,” how can you even begin to believe those drugs are legitimate?
[...]A Risky Proposition: Opening the US to Foreign Medicines Will Put American Children at Heightened Risk
In 2011, the Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) released a report detailing the dangers posed to American children if the secure and safe U.S. medical supply chain is opened to foreign drugs through importation.
[...]Pine Bluff AR Doctor Found Guilty of Health Care Fraud in Fake IUD Case
Osteopath Kelly Dean Shrum was found guilty by a jury of one count of misdemeanor Misbranding in violation of the Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act and one count of Health Care Fraud. He was originally indicted on one count each of misbranding and health care fraud and three counts of money laundering for using imported…
[...]Prominent Wisconsin Pharmacist Arrested on Counterfeit Drug Importation Charges
A Wisconsin pharmacist was recently arrested on charges that she imported and sold millions of pills of phony erectile dysfunction medication and other counterfeit drugs. Marla Ahlgrimm, who owns a number of businesses in Madison, Wisconsin, was arrested when she walked into her office while authorities were executing a search warrant, according to the Wisconsin…
[...]Buying Foreign Drugs Can Be Dangerous
With the economic recession people have been looking for ways to save money and some have even resorted to visiting Mexican and Canadian pharmacies to buy prescription drugs. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not recommend that people buy their drugs from Canadian pharmacies however, according to the Arizona Republic. Some Arizona residents have…
[...]Three Utah Men Sentenced to Federal Prison for Illegal Online Pharmacy
Three men from Utah were recently sentenced to federal prison for their illegal online pharmacy operation. Noah Sifuentes, of Orem, Utah, and Timothy Shields and Kenneth E. Forrest, of Provo, Utah, had all previously pleaded guilty to an illegal online pharmacy business that sent prescription drugs from Mexico across the country, according to the Daily…
[...]U.S. Reaffirms Commitment to Stop North Korea’s Counterfeiting
The U.S. State Department recently reaffirmed its intentions to stop the flow of counterfeit drugs and fake money coming out of North Korea. At a press briefing, department spokesman Patrick Crowley said the U.S. would continue to apply pressure on those who are in charge of North Korea’s policies, reports the Yonhap News Agency. “We…
[...]28 Doctors in 10 Rhode Island Practices Investigated for Purchasing Misbranded IUDs
The Rhode Island Department of Health announced an investigation of 28 providers in 10 Rhode Island OB-GYN medical offices who had illegally imported non-FDA approved IUDs and inserted them into patients. Among the practices named were OB-GYN Associates, Inc, Bayside OB-GYN, Inc., and Center for Obstetrics & Gynecology, Inc. The Rhode Island Department of Health…
[...]“Safe” Country Focus: United Kingdom
As my colleague Thomas Kubic recently noted, most supporters of drug importation have a faulty assumption that developed countries like Canada, Australia, Japan and the 27 members of the European Union (E.U.) are insulated from the global threat of counterfeit drugs. In the coming weeks, we will take a closer look at some of these so-called “safe” countries and illustrate why there is no such thing as a “safe” country when it comes to drug importation.
[...]No Such Thing as a “Safe Country” for Drug Importation
With talks about drug importation continuing in Congress, drug importation supporters argue that if the United States allows importation only from “safe countries,” such as Canada and the United Kingdom, than most of drug safety concerns would be eliminated. However, when it comes to drug importation, there is no such thing as a “safe” country.
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