Online Pharmacies

Consumers are more and more replacing a trip to the corner drugstore with a click onto the Internet where there are lots of web sites promotion prescription drugs.

Many of these are legitimate enterprises Pharmacy Health Topic that offer convenience, privacy, and the safeguards of traditional measures for prescribing drugs. And while some online pharmacies are the well-known large drugstore chains, most of them are smaller local businesses enhancing their customer service with electronic access.

But be wary of others who are using the Internet as an outlet for products or practices that are already illegal in the offline world. These sites either sell unapproved products, or if they deal in approved ones, they often sidestep established procedures meant to protect consumers.
For example, some sites need customers only to fill out a questionnaire prior to ordering prescription drugs, bypassing any face-to-face communication with a health professional. This sets the stage for harmful problems like drug interactions, and uses of contaminated, outdated, or counterfeit drugs.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have made Internet examination an enforcement priority, targeting unlicensed new drugs, health fraud, and prescription drugs sold with no a valid prescription. Consumers looking for health products online Pharmacy Health Topic can find many sites that FDA officials say are officially questionable. Some concentrate in particular drugs like the baldness therapy Propecia (finasteride) , Viagra, or the weight-loss treatment Xenical (orlistat). Others, based in foreign countries, promise to distribute prescription drugs at a much cheaper price than their domestic cost, but the drugs may be dissimilar from those approved in the United States or may be past their expiration dates.

New rule has been planned to regulate online pharmacies. But in the meantime, the oversight of online pharmacies cuts across the jurisdictions of a number of Federal and state agencies. State medical boards control medical practice, while state pharmacy boards supervise pharmacy practice. The FDA and Federal Trade Commission take care that drug sellers make legal claims about their products. The U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Customs Service put into effect laws about the shipment of drug products. The FDA regulates the safety, effectiveness and manufacturing of pharmaceutical drugs, in addition to a part of the prescribing process.