One in 10 drugs bought online are fake.
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Hyderabad: One in 10 drugs bought online are fake. Counterfeit drugs comprise five to seven per cent of the overall global trade. Counterfeiters earn a $400 profit for every $1 earned and for that reason customers are advised to be careful of rogue online pharmacies. In the last two years, 13,000 websites have been shut down due to active checking by Pharmacy Checker’s and other bodies which have been checking up on new and emerging sites.
Doctor of Pharmacy Association, Dr Sai Kiran explained, “There is a need to create awareness as most customers do not check the online pharmacy ratings of these websites. It is also very important to check their verification process. It is only when they get sub-standard drugs or counterfeit drugs do they realize that they have been duped. To safeguard this new online method there is constant checking being done and messages circulated about the fake sites.”
As the Internet enables anyone to set up a pharmaceutical and distribution business at low cost, there is a huge platform to prescribe drugs online. Dr Srinivas Reddy, a pharmacist, said, “It is very important in the present set up to opt for those online services which have a presence in the city. In this manner, it helps to get back to them in case of a problem. But some of them want to buy addiction drugs without prescriptions and they are mostly lured to these sites.” According to research by Pharmacychecker.com, it has been found that most of the pharmacies pretend they are Canadian pharmacies though they don’t have any Canadian connections whatsoever.
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( Source : deccan chronicle )
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