Pangea: The FDA is taking a closer look at online pharmacies

Sites include fda.gov . Published on October 7th, 2012. Written by SiteTrail.

With the amount of Americans looking for more affordable healthcare options and drugs it is no surprize that online pharmacies are a huge business. Many online pharmacies raked in high profits by supplying more affordable generic versions of drugs ranging from cholesterol control tables, viagra and tamiflu equivalents and every popular drug imaginable – until now at least.

The FDA launched operation Pangaea and has sought to work with law enforcement from a range of countries who currently ship drugs to the US in order to crack down on what it considers to be potentially unsafe drugs, which many feel is simply a generic version produced in other countries where the pharmaceutical giants do not reap such a huge reward. , According to the FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg “Consumers in the United States and around the world face a real threat from Internet pharmacies that illegally sell potentially substandard, counterfeit, adulterated or otherwise unsafe medicines”

18 000 Unlawful online pharmacies affected:

According to Reuters, the FDA has taken action against some 4100 online pharmacies across 100 countries and it claims to have discovered in excess of 18000 online pharmacies which are operating unlawfully. Online pharmacies has been in operation for several years and it is unclear whether the sudden action against them has been prompted by real emergencies due to poor quality drugs or indeed lobby pressure from pharmaceutical giants. It appears that Reuters is citing only Canadadrugs although the list of pharmacies affected could be endless.

Consider the risks of online pharmacies

Whilst the risk of buying from an online pharmacy is something readers may want to discuss with their GP, one thing is certain: Whilst not all pharmaceutical websites would sell items considered dangerous by the FDA, the situation could be very dynamic especially in the light of the fact that so many countries are now co-operating with US intelligence. Online entrepreneurs who did not have a varied portfolio and engaged in this form of business would have reached a dead end. On this note our readers should be aware that there are currently more than one highly profitable online pharmacies advertised on listing services such as Flippa – this has clearly become one opportunity to cross off the list.