A new MarkMonitor internet pharmacy study suggests that cumulative internet pharmacy sales grossed $12 billion over the past year, up from $3 billion in 2007. “Our year-over-year trend data shows a grave situation. The number of people looking to save money by buying pharmaceuticals over the web is growing rapidly,” said Irfan Salim, CEO of MarkMonitor. Of the pharmacies surveyed, the average number of daily visitors to their websites has risen from 32,000 to 99,000 this year alone. The traffic at more than one-third of the surveyed pharmacies merited an Alexa ranking.
Seeking to profit off this popularity, “scammers are more aggressively exploiting loose controls over online sales of drugs,” suggested Salim. The research shows that only two of the 2,986 pharmacies surveyed were Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS). Despite the claims by many pharmacies that they are located outside of the United States, 49% of those surveyed are hosted on U.S. based servers. Additionally, cybersquatting of drug brand related domain names is up 35% on the year.
The growth of this industry highlights the need for unambiguous law. Unfortunately, this area of the law is anything but clear, despite what the DEA’s Diversion Control Office might suggest. It is the goal of InternetDrugLaw.com to discuss new indictments, provide commentary on the state of the internet pharmaceutical industry, and, most importantly, expose the above mentioned legal ambiguity.
For more discussion of the MarkMonitor study, I highly suggest reading PharmExec.com.
The content on this post does not constitute legal advice and is for informational purposes only. You should not act upon the information presented on this website without seeking the advice of legal counsel. Should you wish to speak to an experienced criminal defense attorney knowledgeable in internet pharmacy, prescription, and drug law, please feel free to contact me directly.Category: Court Cases DEA Doctors Online Consultations Pharmacies Studies
