Avoid #covidscams - A Partnership for Safe Medicines Public Education Campaign
Avoid #COVIDScams and Counterfeiters: Tips to Purchase Medicine Safely
Ask your pharmacist about how much medicine you should buy: hoarding can create unnecessary shortages.
If you are experiencing hardship contact NeedyMeds, RX Outreach and Medicine Assistance Tool to find patient assistance programs to help you afford your medicines.
If you are buying over the counter or prescription medicine online, buy from a .pharmacy pharmacy. Pharmacies in other countries are not safe, even if they "look safe" to you.
Download our guide, AVOID SCAMS & COUNTERFEITS: Quick Tips to Safely Purchase Medicines Online (in English and Spanish) to learn more, and our #covidscams bookmark, which is a quick reference about five kinds of online crime that have spiked since the coronavirus emerged.
For up to to the minute news, track our coverage about the five types of COVID-19 scams.
Adopt this campaign and help spread the word!
Post our one pager to your website and to social media. Use the hashtag #covidscams to help raise awareness of criminals using the crisis to prey on people. Drop us a note at editors@safemedicines.org to let us know you're helping! Click here for sample tweets.
Report suspected fraud to the FDA’s Health Fraud Program or the Office of Criminal Investigations at FDA-COVID-19-Fraudulent-
Tell Congress to kick COVID-19 scammers off the Internet!
Watch our May 6, 2020 #COVIDscams episode to learn why.
#covidscam News
In this edition: Rise of Fake ‘Corona Cures’ Revealed in Global Counterfeit Medicine Operation, Fake ‘COVID-19 Testing Kits’ Across North America, FDA Letter: Do Not Use Chloroquine Phosphate Intended for Fish as Treatment for COVID-19, and L.A. Warns of Coronavirus Consumer Issues.
Operation Pangea found more than 34,000 bogus surgical masks among the 4.4 million illicit pharmaceuticals and 37,000 counterfeit medical devices seized during their seven-day global effort to target counterfeit drug crime. In Los Angeles, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized counterfeit coronavirus test kits. #covidscams are on the rise.
According to the LA City Attorney’s Office, they have taken action to remove Internet ads that made false claims about COVID-19 prevention and treatment. The Food and Drug Administration and Federal Trade Commission have already issued a warning that there are currently no vaccines or drugs approved to treat COVID-19.
“What we don’t need in this situation are companies preying on consumers by promoting products with fraudulent prevention and treatment claims. These warning letters are just the first step. We’re prepared to take enforcement actions against companies that continue to market this type of scam.”
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Follow our coverage of dangerous importation experiments
Read more about the dangerous new regulations in the HHS announcement.
PSM is still monitoring public reports of dangerous counterfeit medical supplies and treatments. Here’s a quick round-up of counterfeit news published the week May 18, 2020.
Maine submitted a state importation plan to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently to meet its own May 1, 2020 deadline. Given the deep structural flaws in both the idea of importing medicine from Canada and in Maine’s application to do so, PSM wonders if there is a better use of Maine taxpayer dollars than to continue to pursue this idea.
PSM is still monitoring public reports of dangerous counterfeit medical supplies and treatments. Here’s a quick round-up of counterfeit news published the week May 11, 2020.
PSM is still monitoring public reports of dangerous counterfeit medical supplies and treatments. Here’s a quick round-up of counterfeit news published the week May 4, 2020.
The Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research, an official journal of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, published a research paper by Dr. Kristina M.L. Acri née Lybecker titled “State Pharmaceutical Importation Programmes: An Analysis of the Cost-effectiveness.” In the research paper, Dr. Acri analyzed 24 prescription drugs, comparing the presumed cost savings of state-sponsored drug importation…
Even as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, PSM is keeping a steady eye on public reports of dangerous counterfeit drugs. Here’s a quick round-up of counterfeit news published the week of April 27th, 2020.