Identify a legitimate Internet pharmacy

Article: Identify a legitimate Internet pharmacy

With the help of search engines and directories on the Internet, you can easily find a Web-based pharmacy, but it's not simple to recognize a reputable one. You may rely on the reputation of major drugstores to purchase medicines from their online pharmacies. Sometimes, you'll be attracted to a less well-known online drugstore. Unless you know
them well or through recommendations of your health care
professionals, you may need to do research to find an honest,
reputable online pharmacy. It's potentially harmful to you
when receiving counterfeit, outdated, contaminated, or wrong
drugs from an illegitimate Internet pharmacy.

Here are some ways to identify a legitimate Internet pharmacy:

Call the NABP (National Association of Boards of Pharmacy) at
(847) 698-6227, or visit its website www.nabp.net
to check the Web-based pharmacy site you shop is a currently in
good standing. The NABP establishes a voluntary program called
Verified Internet Pharmacy Price Sites (VIPPs) to certify and
monitor legitimate Internet pharmacies. NABP will inspect, review,
certify and recertify pharmacies participated in this program. A
certified Internet pharmacy will have a seal on its site. You can
click on the seal for information. For more information about VIPPs,
click here.

The site will require you to provide a written prescription from
your doctor or authorized health care provider before selling
prescription medication. It's illegal for a pharmacy to sell
prescription drugs without prescription from a doctor. You
should be given a physical exam by your doctor before he/she
gives you a prescription.

The site has a licensed pharmacist available to answer your
questions when you need via email, telephone, or toll free number.

The site lists the pharmacy's physical U.S. address and phone
number you can contact.

The site sells only drugs approved by the FDA (Food and Drug
Administration). The appearance of unknown or unapproved drugs
on the site will give you a signal that it's doing an unscrupulous
business.

The site will not send you emails and advertisements if you
don't request them.

The site will verify each prescription before dispensing
the medicine.

The site does not involve in any health-related scams such
as advertising a drug that can cure all kinds of ailments,
or displaying case histories that are too good to be true.

The site will send you medications with proper labels and
instructions. It must enclose any warnings if the drug is
required to contain warnings.

Use common sense and make your judgment. One example is your
local bricks-and-mortar pharmacy which you frequently purchase
prescription drugs from; now, it decides to open a drug-
dispensing website on the Internet. You may order medication
online from its website and pickup locally without checking its
legitimacy.

The FDA recommends you to purchase prescription drugs only from
U.S. Web-based pharmacy websites. The reason is it's illegal
to import drugs, and the FDA may not have power to shut down
illegitimate foreign sites, and you may receive counterfeit
drugs, or you could lose money when the foreign drug site
disappears from the face of the earth.

Identify a legitimate Internet pharmacy
By John Nguyen and Associates