Although picked up by only one televised news station, the Food and Drug Administration’s new national campaign to raise awareness about risks associated with purchasing medication from online pharmacies was covered by most of the major print and online media outlets.
ABC World News (9/28, story 6, 2:15, Muir) reported, “Tonight, the FDA is warning that the vast majority, 97% of those online pharmacies, are not legal.” ABC (Avila) added, “It’s a moving target of as many as 40,000 active online pharmacies, a huge majority of them fly by night start-ups, that the FDA warned today sell at a cut-rate price but deliver expired, contaminated and fake drugs that could harm the consumer.” FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, MD, was shown saying, “You have no assurance of the safety, efficacy or quality of those products.”
The AP (9/28, Johnson) reported that the on Friday, the FDA announced it is launching a campaign to warn “consumers that the vast majority of Internet pharmacies are fraudulent and likely are selling counterfeit drugs that could harm them.” The agency’s said its BeSafeRx campaign aims to “alert the public to the danger, amid evidence that more people are shopping for their medicine online, looking for savings and convenience.”
Related Links:
— “FDA warning public of risks of online pharmacies, “Linda Johnson, Associated Press, September 28, 2012.