| clarinex.rx@gmail.com 2006-02-23, 11:47 am |
| Online pharmacies leave plenty to be desired when it comes to the sale
of non-prescription medications, according to Australian researchers.
The researchers bought the decongestant Sudafed and the alternative
antidepressant St. John's wort from online pharmacies and found most
failed to provide basic information about the products. Prices also
varied widely, as did the time it took orders to arrive. And hardly any
of the pharmacies flagged a potentially dangerous drug interaction.
"We were surprised about the lack of advice that was available and by
the number of Web sites that didn't offer information about the
products that they were selling," says Tracey Bessell, a researcher at
Monash university in Victoria.
>From July-August 2001, Bessell and her colleagues examined 104 online
pharmacies from several countries, including the United States.
According to the researchers, this is the first report to look at
non-prescription offerings by online drugstores. Their findings appear
in the April issue of Quality and Safety in Health Care , a publication
of the British Medical Journal .
Fewer than half of the Internet pharmacies provided information about
drugs, and much of what they did offer was poor, the researchers found.
Only 13 of 25 pharmacies offering information about Sudafed
(pseudoephedrine hydrochloride) warned visitors about the risks of
taking it. And of 27 online pharmacies that sent Sudafed or St. John's
wort to the researchers, only two included information sheets.
Information about drugs should be clearly available to Web site
visitors, says Michael Coyne, an associate vice president and director
of pharmacology at Staten Island university Hospital in New York City.
"A customer could decide not to read it, but it should be there," he
says.
As part of their study, the researchers invented a customer who was
already taking the antidepressant Prozac and wanted to buy St. John's
wort, which is typically used to treat depression. Some doctors warn
that taking the two together may lead to serious side effects.
Twenty-seven of the pharmacies agreed to sell St. John's wort, but only
three asked questions and responded by warning the customer about the
possible interaction.
"The take-home message is that the quality of the service is highly
variable, and that if you're going to buy medicines over the Internet
from pharmacies, they should offer not only the product but information
and advice," Bessell says.
The study didn't say if any of the online pharmacies studied had been
certified as licensed by pharmaceutical organizations. The National
Association of Boards of Pharmacy, which offers such certifications,
did not respond to a request for comment.
Michael Montagne, a professor at the Massachusetts college of Pharmacy,
says the results aren't surprising considering that the prescription
drug services offered by online pharmacies have problems of their own.
"There are some systems and standards in place, but they're all
voluntary," he notes.
He acknowledges that traditional brick-and-mortar pharmacies may have
missed the interaction between Prozac and St. John's wort because the
latter doesn't require a prescription. However, pharmacists at drug
stores are more likely than those at online pharmacies to keep track of
a customer's medical history and catch potential interactions, he says.
Even so, patients must ask questions, he says: "Consumers don't have a
chance unless they are proactive."
More information
Learn about the National Association of Board of Pharmacy's online
pharmacy certification program . The U.S. Food and Drug Administration
offers tips about online pharmacies .
posted http://www.onlinepharmacies.name
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