FDA Site Aims to Keep Medicine Sales Safe

      FDA site aims to keep medicine sales safe

      By Lauran Neergaard

      Associated Press

      Want to buy prescription drugs or other medical products over the Internet? The government opened a consumer-advice Web page Monday to help patients ensure they''re buying from legitimate stores instead of dangerous quacks.

      The new Food and Drug Administration site (www.fda.gov) also includes instructions for Americans to report any suspicious Internet sites and urges they especially alert FDA quickly if they suffer a serious side effect or injury from a product bought online.

      Those anonymous consumer reports will trigger investigations of problem online drugstores and, if necessary, warnings to the public - - part of what FDA pharmacist Tom McGinnis called a "much more aggressive" effort to police Internet medicine.

      The Internet "has opened up many new options for consumers to purchase products more conveniently," said Dr. Jane Henney, FDA commissioner. "However, the Internet has also provided unscrupulous individuals with immense new opportunities" to harm vulnerable patients.

      It can be difficult to tell the difference between legitimate online drugstores and those that sell illegal products -- some outright dangerous, others a waste of money, the FDA warned.

      For example, the FDA recently uncovered illegal at-home AIDS tests sold over the Internet that didn''t work, meaning people who used the tests may think they are healthy when they are not.

      The FDA also warns about a 53-year-old Chicago man who died after taking the impotence pill Viagra he ordered over the Internet, instead of seeing a doctor who could have advised him that he had heart disease risks that make taking Viagra dangerous.

      And just two weeks ago, the FDA warned consumers not to be misled by Internet claims that shark cartilage cures cancer.

      The FDA isn''t the only agency cracking down. States are beginning to shut down online pharmacies that illegally sell drugs without a valid prescription or properly licensed professionals. Michigan just last week ordered 10 online pharmacies to stop selling or face legal action.

     

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