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Letters to the Editor

The article by Bryan A. Liang “Searching for Safety: Addressing Search Engine, Website, and Provider Accountability for Illicit Online Drug Sales” (the “AJLM article”) contains many inaccuracies and notable omissions. It could easily mislead a reader to believe that an American purchasing a drug from a pharmacy anywhere in the world other than the United States represents a grave safety issue, which is not true. Similarly it misrepresents the safety of purchasing medication from online pharmacies that have been carefully verified in the PharmacyChecker.com program, which the article grossly mischaracterizes. One glaring omission from the author’s own byline is his role as Vice President and Director of the pharmaceutical-sponsored Partnership for Safe Medicines which, not surprisingly, actively opposes all personal drug importation. Soon after publication, the AJLM article was posted for public access on this group’s website, using the AJLM imprimatur to validate and broadcast its misleading statements. The article describes the role of U.S. Customs to include “prohibiting individuals other than the original manufacturers from re-importing drugs back into the U.S.” but there is no mention of the highly relevant FDA policy of permitting personal importation of up to a 90-day supply of a medication. The article asserts that PharmacyChecker.com “permits the dangerous practice of online drug sellers simply using an ‘online consultation’ as the basis for prescription sales.” A single pharmacy is offered to support this claim but the article fails mention that 1) the State of Utah has expressly permitted this particular pharmacy to use a sophisticated online medical consultation process to provide only five non-narcotic medications and 2) the PharmacyChecker.com program prohibits the use of online prescribing unless expressly permitted by law, as in this rare case. The author also claims that, “‘Verified’ pharmacies sell fake drugs and do not fulfill the supposed ‘requirements’.” To support this outrageous claim, the article states that an online pharmacy that “had been disciplined in 2001... for filing more than 10,000 medication orders from U.S. patients without a valid prescription ... continued to be a PharmacyChecker.com verified pharmacy...” This is impossible as PharmacyChecker.com did not begin verifications until 2003. The article mentions the recent Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act (which prevents the online sale of narcotics without a prescription based on a physical examination by a licensed doctor) but fails to note that 1) compliance is necessary for PharmacyChecker.com membership, and, furthermore, 2) PharmacyChecker.com prohibits membership to nonU.S. pharmacies that sell controlled substances into the U.S.