Revolutionizing Health Care: The Evolving Path of E-Prescriptions
Medication errors cause avoidable harm in approximately 1 in 30 patients, with 25% of these patients experiencing severe or life-threatening harm. Aiming to prevent these errors, Drug Enforcement Administration. provided prescribers with the option to use e-prescriptions for controlled substances (CS) based on an interim final rule published in 2010. Since this rule became effective, […]
Read More ›Tactics Criminals Use to Sell Drugs Online
The United States is home to one of the most secure drug supply chains in the world, but criminals still find pathways to buy and sell prescription drugs—including controlled substances—often using websites and social media platforms to do so. We compiled information from experts about how criminals use online platforms to sell these drugs illegally […]
Read More ›Rise of Digital Pharmacy: How Emerging Technologies Are Changing the Practice
Change has been a near-constant companion to pharmacists and pharmacy regulators over the last decade, with many of those changes accelerated by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. As pharmacist duties and responsibilities have increased, many have experienced greater demand for their services. The resulting strain has made well-being and burnout one of the most concerning […]
Read More ›How Lock-and-Suspend Shuts Down Illegal Online Pharmacies and Protects Patients
At any given time, between 30,000 and 40,000 illegal online pharmacies hawk substandard prescription drugs to unsuspecting patients. Law enforcement and government agencies have a steep hill to climb in stopping them, but “lock-and-suspend” shows promise. Our newest Rogue Rx Activity Report explores how locking and suspending the domain names of these sites directly impacts […]
Read More ›New Bill for Online Platform Accountability Looks Beyond Section 230
As has been reported extensively over the past year, social media companies have come under scrutiny both at the national and international levels for not doing enough to prevent their platforms from being used to facilitate illegal drug sales. Despite reports that many popular platforms have stepped up efforts to police content – both TikTok […]
Read More ›Update on DRUGS Act: Bipartisan Bill Seeks to Shut Down Illegal Online Pharmacies
For over two decades, NABP has raised concerns over the vast number of illegal online pharmacies that put Americans’ health at risk by selling medications without a prescription, operating without a license, and peddling substandard, falsified, or counterfeit prescription drugs, including illicit opioids, to patients. Government agencies, including Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), […]
Read More ›How e-Prescribing Trends Impacted the Opioid Epidemic
Before DEA published an interim final rule in 2010, which gave practitioners the option to write prescriptions for controlled substances (CS) electronically, e-prescribing for CS was prohibited in many states. Now, 11 years later, the regulatory and technological landscape has shifted significantly. As part of the larger effort to curb the opioid crisis, many states […]
Read More ›How Washington’s Response to Cyberattacks Impacts the Health Care Sector
Cyberattacks targeting the nation’s critical infrastructure have become increasingly prevalent over the last few years, but, during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, attacks across all sectors have rapidly accelerated. Greater emphasis on remote work and business operations have created the “perfect storm” for cybercriminals to exploit security flaws within many organizations, especially the health […]
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 ›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 […]
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