Rogue pharmacies: online drug crackdown.

• Author: Bailey, Ronald
• Position: Citings - LegitScript - Brief article

EACH YEAR millions of Americans buy prescription drugs from online pharmacies based in other countries. Since many of these pharmaceuticals are re-imported from countries with government-imposed price controls, they tend to be cheaper than American drugs. Naturally, U.S. pharmacies don't like the competition.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Although such imports are illegal, for years U.S. agencies generally have looked the other way. In 2010, however, the feds began coercing domain name wholesalers into hiring the pharmacy vetting company LegitScript to vouch for the legality of online drug retailers. LegitScript identifies "rogue" pharmacies, which are mainly pharmacies that sell to Americans but are not licensed in the United States, regardless of whether they are licensed in their home countries.

Consumers should be wary of sketchy online pharmacies, of course. But...