Why Medicine Sold on Social Media Can Be Deadly
If Charlie had known how prolific fake pills on social media were, would he still be alive? It’s a haunting question for his parents, Ed and Mary Ternan, because the answer is probably “yes.” Had he known, maybe he wouldn’t have taken a single pill last year, bought on social media, to relieve his back pain. He thought it was a painkiller, but instead it was a […]
Read More ›National Poll Finds That Americans Are Prioritizing Cost and Convenience Over Safety When Buying Medications Online
Online pharmacy use in America is growing, but a survey conducted by the ASOP Global Foundation suggests that Americans’ knowledge of the risks is not. In June 2021, building on a similar 2020 survey conducted by the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies, 1,500 Americans across the nation were asked about their perceptions and use of […]
Read More ›Cyberattackers Continue to Threaten the COVID-19 Supply Chains
In early December 2020, as United States and European governments readied their distribution plans in anticipation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine authorization, law enforcement agencies prepared for an onslaught of various types of criminal activity and organized crime linked to COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Similar to the predatory criminal behavior seen earlier in the pandemic, […]
Read More ›Nonprescription Insulin Scam Puts Patients at Severe Risk
NABP’s accreditations and inspections provide a unique opportunity to observe drug safety issues from a national perspective in both pharmacy practice and drug distribution. Through the processing of accreditation applications of digital pharmacies and drug wholesale distributors, we have recently observed schemes involving nonprescription insulin that pose important health threats to patients. While these pharmacies and wholesalers cannot become NABP accredited until corrective measures have been taken and they have ceased such activities, these schemes continue to threaten patients in non-accredited facilities. We hope that creating awareness of these activities […]
Read More ›How Online Drug Dealers Exploit Social Media Algorithms
This month marks one year since Charlie Ternan, a 22-year-old, soon-to-be college graduate, was found unresponsive in his room after taking what he thought to be Percocet® to alleviate his back pain. The pill was unfortunately not a legitimate pain medication but was instead a fentapill, a counterfeit drug containing the synthetic opioid fentanyl. Charlie purchased […]
Read More ›Pharmacists can help increase confidence in the COVID-19 vaccines
Developing three vaccines against COVID-19 in a relatively short amount of time was monumental. But what might end up being equally Herculean: convincing everyone to get vaccinated. Studies show that Americans have varying levels of hesitancy about receiving a COVID-19 shot depending upon their ethnic background, geographical location, and political affiliation, among other factors. Add […]
Read More ›Internet Platform Accountability and Why it Matters to Public Health
On March 25, 2021, chief executive officers (CEOs) from internet giants, including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, testified before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on the rise of extremism and misinformation plaguing their online platforms. Although the impetus for this hearing is the lack of action taken by […]
Read More ›Some dietary supplements are risky, but pharmacists can help educate patients
During the last weeks of 2020, FDA released a list of nearly 50 tainted dietary supplements, all of them male enhancement or weight loss products. In early 2021, FDA published a voluntary recall regarding two additional tainted sexual enhancement supplements. Only a few days later, FDA published 10 warning letters to supplement companies who market […]
Read More ›FDA Actions Related to Online Drug and Vaccine Sales
The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) emergency use authorization of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines in late December 2020 represented a major positive shift in the tide of the pandemic. Unfortunately, criminals now also have another way to take advantage of patients. As of late January 2021, over 20 million Americans […]
Read More ›The Online Pharmacy Marketplace Will Look Different in 2021 – Here’s How
Within the past two months, the online pharmacy marketplace has experienced some market-shifting dynamics that could alter the scope and direction of the industry. Within the span of approximately two weeks, e-commerce behemoth Amazon announced the launch of its NABP-accredited pharmacy website against the backdrop of Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Importation of Prescription Drugs […]
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