Pfizer joins with NABP to fight counterfeit medicine menace

Pfizer and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy in the USA have launched a new effort to draw attention to the risks associated with counterfeit medicines and help patients to safely buy drugs online.

As part of the exercise, Pfizer has carried out an online sampling exercise in which it bought its erectile dysfunction (ED) product Viagra (sildenafil) from 26 pharmacy websites that appeared among the top results when "buy Viagra" was entered into two search engines.

All the pharmacies examined were found to be operating illegally, and 81 per cent of them were selling counterfeit Viagra.

Those results reinforce a recent review by the NABP of more than 8,000 websites selling prescription medicines, which found that 96 per cent appeared to be operating in conflict with pharmacy laws and practice standards, putting patients at risk of receiving counterfeit or adulterated medicines.

Adding to the danger, patients who buy medicines from illegitimate online pharmacies are at risk of financial fraud and identity theft when they share their credit card and other personal information with criminal counterfeiting networks.

A new Harris Interactive survey carried out by Pfizer reveals that men with ED showed considerable confusion when asked whether ED medicines bought online - and the pharmacies selling them - were likely to be authentic or not. 

Around 6 per cent of men polled said they considered themselves knowledgeable about determining the legitimacy of an online pharmacy, but many were adopting risky buying behaviours, such as buying ED medicines from Internet pharmacies advertised by spam (27 per cent) or based on an online search (36 per cent).

Moreover, while the men were more likely to trust a website claiming to be based in Canada, Pfizer's analysis found that none of the four websites identifying themselves as Canadian actually shipped their products from Canada, sourcing them mainly from Hong Kong, India and the USA.

Most worryingly, the survey found that even though 23 per cent of men did not believe that online pharmacies claiming to be based in Canada were selling real brand-name products, nearly half of respondents (46 per cent) would still consider buying ED medicines from them.

To help raise awareness of the problem of counterfeit drugs, Pfizer and the NABP have set up a YouTube channel and various other online resources to provide easy-to-understand information about the dangers of buying medicines online.

"Online advertising will reach patients at the critical moment when they are searching for popular keywords, such as 'buy Viagra' and 'cheap Viagra'," said Pfizer in a statement.

When users click on the ads, they will be taken to the Viagra YouTube channel to view educational videos about the dangers of counterfeit medicines and how to safely buy prescription medicines online.