Daily Archives: August 3, 2015

FDA’s Be Safe Rx Campaign

The FDA has developed the “Be Safe Rx Campaign” for consumer education and to address the need for caution in purchasing drugs online. Nearly twenty-five percent of people who have purchased drugs online have purchased from a site not associated with any pharmacy or health insurance plan.

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/UCM321495.pdf

 

Some red flags that could signal a fraudulent online pharmacy:  Beware of online pharmacies that are located outside the United States and are not licensed in the United States by a state agency. Another tipoff is an online pharmacy that allows you to buy medicine without a prescription or by asking you to complete an online survey instead of requiring a prescription, or offers very low drug prices that seem too good to be true. Many fake online pharmacies send spam or unsolicited e-mail offering deep discounts on medicine. Be wary of drugs shipped from a foreign country.

FDA’s CD-3 counterfeit detection device

Fake pharmaceuticals are a growing problem.  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the front line agency involved in the fight against fake pharmaceuticals and has developed CD-3, a counterfeit detection device that provides a real time, low cost, portable solution that can be deployed almost anywhere. (see Youtube video).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfYUkiKAJvA

 

CD-3 is intended as a low-cost and effective counterfeit drug-testing tool that is used by 50 FDA field laboratories.