How to distinguish a licensed Canadian pharmacy from a fake pharmacy on the Internet
There has been a growing concern regarding fake pharmacies on the Internet. In fact, the pharmaceutical industry has called the growth in the number of fake Internet pharmacy websites a “global disaster.”
There are two things to highlight here.
First, there are definitely unscrupulous scammers operating fake Internet pharmacy sites. You should be careful to check the validity of any online pharmacy before ordering your medications.
Second, you should take reports from the pharmaceutical industry with a grain of salt. Big Pharma wants Americans to keep buying “inflated and expensive” pharmaceuticals at their local pharmacy. It is in Big Pharma’s best interest (more profit) that you pay the best price for your medications locally rather than purchasing them at an affordable price from a licensed Canadian pharmacy. So they use fear to scare you away from Canadian pharmacies and Canadian prescription drugs.
So how do you ensure that you order from a genuine Canadian pharmacy and not from a fake internet pharmacy?
First, carefully review the pharmacy’s website. The website should provide you with the pharmacy’s license number, the pharmacy’s physical address, and the regulatory body that oversees its operation. Most Canadian pharmacy regulatory bodies have a website that lists the pharmacies registered in their jurisdiction. You can visit the website http://www.napra.org to find the list of pharmacies for each province in Canada or to find the regulatory body for the particular province where your pharmacy is located.
The pharmacy must also provide a phone number on its website for you to call. A pharmacist should be available to discuss your order. Ask the pharmacist about their credentials and ask for their license number. If you wish, you can verify this license number with the provincial pharmacy regulator.
Another item to look for is the Canadian International Pharmacy Association (CIPA) seal. CIPA is an organization representing legitimate Canadian pharmacy sites that provide pharmacy services to patients internationally. Now, seeing this seal on a website is not a guarantee in itself. Fake internet pharmacies have been known to hijack the CIPA seal and place it on their website. The only way to verify the legitimacy of the CIPA Membership Seal is to visit the CIPA website at http://www.ciparx.ca and use its Verify Membership feature. A fake internet pharmacy will not list their website here.
And the last item to look for on a Canadian pharmacy website is the PharmacyChecker seal. Pharmacy Checker is an independent agency that verifies the legitimacy of Canadian pharmacies, as well as US and international pharmacies. In fact, pharmacies cannot advertise on Google without a PharmacyChecker seal, and Google takes this very seriously. You can verify the PharmacyChecker seal by visiting http://www.PharmacyChecker.com and clicking on Pharmacy Profiles and Ratings.
In addition to looking at the articles above on the pharmacy website, you should also make sure that the pharmacy requires you to provide a prescription from your doctor. Any website that does not require you to provide a prescription is not a legitimate Canadian pharmacy.
Follow these simple rules and you can feel safe knowing that you are ordering your medications safely online at a real, licensed Canadian pharmacy.
Copyright (c) 2007 Jeremy Cockerill