Web Search Engine to Warn About Fake Online Pharmacies

To help consumers avoid potentially unsafe online drug outlets, Bing will provide a new warning message on certain search results in Bing.com. “This warning will appear if a Bing user clicks on a pharmaceutical site that has been cited by the FDA as a fake online pharmacy engaged in illegal activity, such as offering dangerous, unapproved and misbranded prescription drugs to US consumers,” indicates Bing in a blog post. The warning message informs consumers that FDA has issued a warning letter to the site about potentially unsafe drugs and presents consumers with a link to more information about choosing a safe online pharmacy. An example of the warning message is available in the Bing blog post.

Since 2008, NABP has been collecting data on websites selling medicine illegally online to US patients. NABP has reviewed over 11,000 Internet drug outlets, finding that 96.13% of the sites reviewed operate out of compliance with US pharmacy laws and practice standards, and identifying these sites as “Not Recommended.” The Association launched the .Pharmacy Top-Level Domain (TLD) Program to provide consumers around the world a means to identify safe and legal online pharmacies and related resources. NABP will grant use of the .pharmacy domain only to legitimate website operators that adhere to pharmacy laws in the jurisdictions in which they are based and in which their patients and customers reside, so that consumers can easily find safe online pharmacies. More information about the .Pharmacy TLD Program, including a list of approved entities with registered .pharmacy domain names, is available online.