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Weekly Update |
March 15, 2010 |
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PSM Delivers Social Media Recommendations to the
FDA
If you're
familiar with the Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM), you're familiar with
our goal: to mitigate the threat of counterfeit and unsafe medicines to
patients.
The
internet and social media have been both a hindrance to our efforts-giving legs
to unlicensed online pharmacies, search engine advertising and spam-and a
help-providing a tool for outreach and advocacy efforts, all while providing
choice and access for patients.
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So when the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) issued its call for comments for a public hearing on the promotion of FDA-regulated medical products using the internet
and social media, we had a lot to say. In addition to enunciating our
desire to see a crackdown on search engine advertising of pharmaceuticals, we
outlined three key challenges in regard to social media and pharmaceutical
products:
- Lack of advertiser oversight
and gate-keeping. For example, Facebook vaguely instructs its advertisers against
posting ads for "uncertified pharmaceutical products."
- Lack of cooperation from
trusted medical sites. PSM has encountered problems messaging to well-known
medical sites, demonstrating that legitimate organizations can be stymied
from communicating FDA alerts and recalls with affected groups.
- Policing advertiser content
versus user-generated content. While advertiser content can be easily monitored,
policing user-generated content about pharmaceuticals can be a gray area
for administrators.
We also submitted
a handful of solutions to the FDA that, in conjunction with other regulatory
bodies, can shutter advertisers and peddlers of counterfeit drugs on the Web.
Among our proposed solutions:
- Regulation of internet drug
sellers, including online pharmacies. Simply, internet pharmacies
should face the same standards as their offline counterparts.
- Search engine-specific
regulations for advertising programs that discourage them from taking
advertising dollars from unlicensed and unapproved sources, as well as
incentives for search engines to shut down unauthorized sellers. This could include banning
pharmaceutical-related keywords and a greater enforcement of advertisers
bidding on trademarked pharmaceutical terms, among other solutions.
- Enabling verified social media
accounts for authorized sellers and pharmaceutical companies. FDA could work with Twitter
and other social networking platforms to verify pharmaceutical accounts,
enabling consumers to get information from authentic sources.
- Software programs that block
drug SPAM from personal computers. Programs that block pharmaceutical spam could
be easily installed on personal computers and B-to-B partnerships could be
created to encourage computer makers to include complimentary software
with new purchases.
- FDA monitoring of social media
and SMS alerts. Monitoring ongoing conversations online will help FDA pinpoint
users who are peddling illicit products online. Furthermore, text-based
warnings for cell phones and other handheld devices could communicate
important alerts to affected patient groups, medical providers and medical
centers.
To
view our complete set of recommendations, read our official
remarks to the FDA. We encourage you to keep up with this issue by following PSM on
Twitter, and reading tweets tagged #fdasm.
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Top News
UK: Customers Unwittingly Forwarded to
Sites Selling Counterfeit Drugs
United Kingdom academic institutions have
unwittingly become the victims of criminals selling counterfeit drugs online. A
security firm has discovered many organizations using the .ac.uk domain are
unknowingly forwarding customers to websites offering the fake pills. The scam
exploits software flaws to piggyback on the computing resources of colleges and
universities. The speed with which sites were being put up and taken down made
it hard to get an exact figure for how many sites had been hit. However, he
estimated that thousands of sites had been exploited by the drug spammers.
("Fake Drug Scam Hijacks UK College Websites," BBC, March 5, 2010; Story here)
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World News
Canada: Canadians Reminded to be Wary of
Online Medicines
"If it
seems too good to be true, it usually is," said Michel Caron, a pharmacist
at Ordre des Pharmaciens du Quebec. "The risks of buying medications
online are enormous."
Many
websites claim to be selling brand name prescription drugs at discounted
prices.
The online
purchase of any drug poses the potential for serious health risks. Many of the
websites selling medications claim to be Canadian when, in fact, they are
operating outside of the country. The online purchase of any drug poses the potential for serious health
risks, especially when drugs are shipped to Canadian consumers from
sources outside of the country, warns Health Canada. ("Online Medicine Comes With Risks," Montreal
Gazette, March 4, 2010; Story
here)
East Africa: New Laws Will Fight Counterfeit
Trade
Companies
targeting the East African market are set to benefit from the introduction of
new anti-counterfeit rules which the regional trading bloc is preparing.
Drafters of the regional anti-counterfeit legislation say they are at an
advanced stage and the laws could be introduced in the East African Assembly as
early as July. A committee of trade experts from Kenya,
Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda
and Burundi met in Arusha, Tanzania,
yesterday to discuss the draft anti-counterfeits laws applicable in each of the
EAC member states. ("EA edges closer to having common laws on fake goods," Business
Daily Africa, March 10, 2010; Story
here)
Vietnam: Counterfeit Drugs Remain Common in
Ho Chi Minh City
Local
police last month discovered a large quantity of counterfeit drugs and
production equipment including stamping machines and a device to make drug
capsules. Also last month, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) Market Managers discovered
2,000 containers of expired drugs in a warehouse belonging to Dong Phuong
(Oriental) Pharmaceutical Ltd. Company. The company was found illegally
applying new expiry dates to the drugs. According to the HCMC Market Management
Board, over 10 major cases were reported in 2009 involving local pharmacies
selling fake or expired drugs. ("Vietnam:
Illegal Pharmaceutical Trade Continues to Run Rampant in Ho Chi Minh City," Saigon Daily, March
9, 2010; Story
here)
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About the Partnership for Safe Medicines
The Partnership for Safe Medicines is a group of organizations and individuals that have policies, procedures, or programs to protect consumers from counterfeit or contraband medicines. For more information, please visit SafeMedicines.org.
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