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Online Pharmacy Pioneer Arrested In Florida

Posted by Soulskill on from the internet-pill-man dept.

FeatherBoa writes "A Manitoba man who was one of the first entrepreneurs in the cross-border online pharmacy industry has been arrested in Florida and is facing charges related to the sale of foreign and counterfeit medicines. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration claimed many of the drugs promoted as Canadian actually came from other countries. An FDA spokesperson commented, 'Many of these websites are operating outside of the United States. However, the internet's broad reach allows these websites to reach U.S. consumers.'"

7 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. Alternate interpretation by dkleinsc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is vigilant and stops a guy who helps people buy what appear to a layperson to be the health products they want to buy but are in fact frauds that will kill them or do nothing while getting them to avoid proper treatment."

    I'm not sure which is right, because I don't have the facts of the case, but it's quite possible that what the FDA is doing is a good thing.

    --
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    1. Re:Alternate interpretation by PPH · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Probably true, but this is more a problem with HealthCanada than the FDA.

      If I buy my drugs from a Canadian Pharmacy, I know (or should know) that I will be subject to Canadian regulations and quality control standards. The FDA's involvement in this should be no more than to inform me of this fact.

      What broke down is HealthCanadas oversight of this guy's operation. The article seems to suggest that Strempler "every intention of conducting an ethical and professional business". Of course, that was one of his online pharmacy buddies opinions.

      The FDA cannot assure the safety and efficacy of products that are purchased outside of legitimate channels.

      HealthCanada isn't legitimate? Well, maybe not. So the solution should be: deport Strempler and see how the Canadians deal with him.

      I'm all for the FDA keeping the American public informed as to what meets standards and what does not. But this situation isn't much different than me visiting Tijuana and eating at a local taco stand. The health codes aren't up to US standards, but I know that.

      --
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  2. Pro-tip: by nedlohs · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you run (or have run) and online pharmacy that sold to Americans, a online casino or poker site that let Americans play, a file sharing site, and so on then do not set foot in America.

    Best not get on a plane that flies near America (though that's going to be hard for Canadians) just in case.

    At least make them go through the work of an extradition and maybe pick a country who doesn't just bend over and say "how far do you want me to stretch?"

  3. Re:Cannot Understand his Customers by Hatta · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are a lot of uninsured and underinsured people out there. If you're living paycheck to paycheck, and you'll be out $150 of grocery money if you take an office visit (not to mention the time off of work you won't be getting paid for), then self-diagnosis on the Web and foreign pharmacies start looking like attractive options.

    This is what people are forced to do in a for profit health care industry.

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  4. Re:Cannot Understand his Customers by MadKeithV · · Score: 5, Funny

    Seriously, I've seen doctors prescribe pregnizone without any mention of any potential interactions and side effects, and that's the kind of drug where the side effects are often worse than the symptoms being treated.

    Pregnizone? Are the side effects of that drug children?

  5. Re:Capitalism,legislated. by Bigby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Very few US businesses preach free market capitalism. They preach managed market capitalism. They achieve that goal through the practice of crony capitalism. Crony capitalism increases in effectiveness with the size of government (and its power). And free market capitalism gets the bad rap as government power and size increases. Go figure.

  6. Re:Counterfeit or foreign? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Team Intellectual Property has done their level best to lump all classes of 'products that they don't like' into a homogenous category of wickedness.

    One would think that a meaningful distinction could be drawn between the following categories:

    1. Fakes: Capsules full of god-knows-what fraudulently labelled as being something else and sold as such.
    2. Counterfeits: Generic drugs (or non-OEM compatible FRUs, in situations like ink cartridges) fraudulently sold as being the name-brand good.
    3. Unauthorized resale: Authentic goods being sold in some manner that makes the manufacturer a sad, sad, panda.
    4. Authorized distribution: Authentic goods being sold as the manufacturer wanted.

    Unfortunately for everyone, except for the blatantly self-interested parties, there has been a concerted effort to muddle the genuinely pernicious and dangerous class 1, and the possibly safe but definitely fraudulent, as in class 2, with the merely-cuts-into-profits-from-price-discrimination-between-countries of class 3.

    Thus, while ICE will attempt to hunt you down if you are shipping in boxes of sugar pills labelled as some drug, or generic printer cartridges stamped "HP", they will also bust you for importing authentic Rolexes, legally purchased outside the US, if the trademark holder doesn't want you selling them in the US, despite them being 100% genuine product, with no theft or fraud in the distribution chain...