NACDS expresses support of FDA enforcement against rogue pharmacy Web sites

ALEXANDRIA, Va. Nearly one week after the Food and Drug Administration's enforcement actions against the operators of Web sites selling illegal and misbranded medical products, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores sent a letter to the agency appaluding its efforts.

The letter expresses the association’s concern about these Internet sites, both domestic and foreign, that are engaged in a pattern of illegal activity regarding the prescribing and dispensing of prescription medications.

The letter states, “These illegal, rogue Internet sites take advantage of consumers by luring them into illegal schemes to obtain prescription drugs, often controlled substances, without a prescription or valid patient-prescriber relationship. These Internet sites are not pharmacies.”

Last week, the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations, in conjunction with the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research and the Office of Regulatory Affairs, Office of Enforcement, targeted 136 Web sites that appeared to be engaged in the illegal sale of unapproved or misbranded drugs to U.S. consumers. None of the Web sites are for pharmacies in the United States or Canada.

Click here to read the letter of FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg.