World News
Buying Medicine Online: What You Need To Know
Because of the high cost of prescription drugs, more and more people are buying their medicine online in the hopes of saving time and money. Unfortunately, not all of the online pharmacies are on the up-and-up. We're taking action with the information you need and the questions you need to ask to determine if the…
[...]Don’t Harbour the Patent Pirates
People are calling Marcia Bergeron the proverbial canary in the coalmine. The British Columbia woman was found dead in her home last December, filled by chemicals laced with lethal heavy metals believed to have been packed into a counterfeit pill she bought over the internet. She had ingested a drug produced in south-east Asia or…
[...]Counterfeit Medical Products – How To Be Sure You’re Getting the Right Thing
Most people think of watches, DVDs, shoes and purses when they think of counterfeit items in the U.S. market. What about counterfeit prescription drugs, healthcare products or medical devices? Despite vigilance on the part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and law enforcement, counterfeiting of healthcare products and medical devices and components has…
[...]How to stay safe if you buy medicine online
By now, anyone who reads my column knows I am a devoted fan of comparison shopping. Why? It arms us with the knowledge of what things should cost. And that, my friends, is how you know when you're scoring a great deal. But when it comes to buying medication online, finding a great deal is…
[...]Save a little but lose big online
How much can you "save" by buying cheap drugs over the Internet? Be careful, consumers. You may, in fact, be paying for dangerous knockoffs that could cost a lot more than you bargained for. In August, knockoffs of Johnson & Johnson's OneTouch Test Strips were traced to China. One year prior, they had surfaced in…
[...]DOJ Cracks Down on Internet Pharmacy
Six men face charges of illegally distributing drugs through an Internet pharmacy, and the U.S. Department of Justice is seeking forfeiture of more than US$40 million in profit from the operation. The men, from the U.S. and Puerto Rico, were indicted Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa in Cedar Rapids,…
[...]Nigeria: Fake Chemicals, Not Doctors, Cause Wrong Diagnosis
The Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Dora Akunyili yesterday said fake chemicals used for the manufacture of drugs and diagnosis in laboratories were responsible for most health problems in the country. The DG, NAFDAC who was fielding questions from news men at the induction of…
[...]The high price of cheap pills
When was the last time you picked up a bottle of Bayer Aspirin and wondered whether it was authentic? Never? Well, that's because Bayer is a well-known brand. You were probably in a chain store, or at least on a popular website like DrugStore.com. Plus, you don't need a prescription for aspirin. But what if…
[...]What’s In The Bottle? Your Pharmacy Might Not Know
You buy your prescription drugs from a reputable pharmacy with the belief that the medicine in the bottle is exactly what the doctor ordered. But buyer beware: neither you, nor your pharmacy, nor the government has any way of being certain it is. Long Island native Tim Fagan, now 22, had a liver transplant at…
[...]New counterfeit report highlights worrying trends
"Today, few jurisdictions, whether developed or developing, are immune from counterfeit pharmaceuticals and the infringement of intellectual property rights", warned the report on counterfeiting released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). While the magnitude of counterfeit pharmaceuticals is still reported as low (less than one percent) in many developed countries, such as…
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