ONLINE PHARMACY WARNING!!!

Rugger · March 2, 2004

The local NBC news station just ran an expose' on buying drugs off the internet from foreign sources. Their investigation covered only distributors in Canada and Mexico.

They found many of the drugs contained lower active ingredients than advertised, as well as higher levels than acceptable of heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic, etc...In Canada, they found many of the drugs ordered, were actually knockoffs produced in India..

Be careful where you get your Propecia...

Online drugs: Why cheaper isn't always better

10:41 PM PST on Monday, March 1, 2004

By ELISA HAHN / KING 5 News

We are a nation ready to pop a better pill, lining up at pharmacies around the corner, across the border and along the information highway.

The Food and Drug Administration estimates three to four million Americans are buying lower-cost foreign drugs, because to many, better means cheaper.

But at what price to your health? In some cases, unscrupulous businesses are only too happy to sell you something that just looks like the drug you need, but contains little or none of the actual drug.

We purchased popular drugs online from some Mexican and Canadian pharmacies. Weeks later, the first to arrive was Viagra in a hand-addressed envelope, clearly postmarked from India.

Inside was a little cardboard, a few sheets of paper, the bill from our Mexican on-line pharmacy, a plastic bag and four unmarked pills.

But the pill had absolutely none of the active ingredient. While it wouldn't hurt you physically, it could take a psychological toll.

"His dreams would be deflated to say the least," said forensic toxicologist Dr. Ernest Lykissa. "I don't know how else to put it."

And how does India figure into all this?

Experts warn these days fancy Web sites need only a basic computer. Our pharmacist found a supplier in India, probably through the Internet.

Was our finding just a fluke?

Not according to the FDA, which is in the middle of testing 1600 drugs purchased outside the United States, including birth control medicines.

??It's a fake knockoff of that contraceptive patch you see on television," the FDA's Dr. Richard Hubbard said.

There was no active ingredient.

Hubbard also showed us seizure and prostate medications an elderly man bought, which were supposedly made in Canada.

"In fact he was getting these fake knockoffs from India," Dr. Hubbard said.

"We have seen other examples of Indian companies selling drugs through Canada, or directly over the Internet," Dr. Hubbard said.

We bought the top five U.S. prescribed drugs online from two Mexican pharmacies.

The first batch was purchased from Safemeds.com.

The Premarin, Synthroid and Zoloft equivalents were relatively pure and potent, but the Norvasc had up to ten times the acceptable level of certain heavy metals, and its potency was a borderline acceptable 92 percent.

Poor manufacturing processes also tainted the Lipitor samples with similar problems, one was just under 79 percent potent.

"That means you're only getting about three-quarters of what you're supposed to be getting," forensic toxicologist Dr. Ernest Lykissa said.

The second group we bought from myrxforless.com.

Contamination was worse.

The Zoloft had nearly 20 times the acceptable level of certain metals, including an elevated level of arsenic.

There were similar troubles with the Norvasc and Premarin, and the Synthroid had elevated mercury.

The worst was the Lipitor which had 20 milligrams of contaminants, and just 80 percent potency.

"I would definitely categorize it as a dangerous drug," Dr. Lykissa said.

Heavy metals threaten kidneys and could cause bladder cancer.

Also, weakened drugs could devastate weakened patients.

"Is it potentially fatal?" Dr. Lykissa was asked. "It could be, depending on the individual," he said.

The FDA's response after reviewing our results.?

"These are contaminants that the FDA would never allow to be in a U.S. produced drug," the administration's Dr. Richard Hubbard said.

So who's behind the fancy Web sites?

We tracked Safemeds to an office in Mexico City, where they explained why foreign drugs are cheaper.

"The regulation system is much stricter in the United States than here in Mexico," Arturo Silva with Safemeds said.

The only address for Rx for Less is a post office in the Mexican border town of Agua Prieta.

But we tracked box number 65, to a corner drug store called Maxi Farmacia.

Owner Ricardo Luevano says his Mexican supplier gets the medication from many countries.

Then he said he didn't sell the drugs we tested. He insisted quality was fine until we showed him our test results.

"You don't recognize any of those drugs?" we asked. "No," Luevano said. "You don't? We asked again. "No," he said once more.

But then, the very drug he wanted to show us as a quality product, Lipitor, was among the worst of the medicines we've tested.

"Our medicine is bad?" Luevano asked.

The problem is it's hard for even a farmacia to know where its drugs are coming from.

"You may be dealing with an individual who on Saturday is making illegal illicit drugs, and on Sunday says, ??let's make Viagra,' " Dr. Lykissa said.

Or something that looks just like it

We shared our test results with the head of global security for Pfizer, who calls the products counterfeits.

"The counterfeiters have become so sophisticated these days in packaging and presenting counterfeit products that visual authentication of the product is almost impossible," said R. John Theriault, Pfizer's Vice President for global security.

[This message was edited by Rugger on March 01, 2004 at 11:32 PM.]

[This message was edited by Rugger on March 01, 2004 at 11:34 PM.]

[This message was edited by Rugger on March 01, 2004 at 11:35 PM.]

Rugger · March 2, 2004