NABP report urges Internet drug website accountability

MOUNT PROSPECT, Ill. — The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy last week released a progress report urging state and federal regulation for the thousands of websites that illegally distribute medications.

These websites can place consumers at risk by distributing dangerous counterfeit drugs, according to the NABP. 

The report recommends that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and domain name registrars closely monitor and shut down illegal websites.

Since 2008, the NABP has examined more than 11,000 drug websites and found that 96.13% do not comply with U.S. pharmacy laws, the NABP said.

About 85% of these “Not Recommended sites” sell prescription drugs without requiring valid prescriptions, and almost half distribute foreign or non-FDA-approved drugs.

In late 2014, the NABP took one measure against the illegal sale of drugs over the Internet, by introducing the global .Pharmacy Top-Level Domain Program, which grants “.pharmacy” domains only to legitimate Internet pharmacies and pharmacy-related websites, according to the NABP.

The NABP began to register .pharmacy domain names on June 3.