Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Cheap Drugs and Subscription Payment Trap

DrugStoreBestBuys and Pharmacy Shark Patrol receive daily requests to comment on the performance of online pharmacies.

We have quoted from many examples in the past - here is a recent enquiry from Kris K from Illinios worth discussing :

To: drugstorebestbuys.com
Sent: Thursday, 30 March 2006 8:40 AM
Subject: usrxleader.com

Have you heard anything good or bad about this pharmacy usrxleader.com, they seem so cheep! Thanks K.

This is the fast response from Melissa our customer service community manager :

From: Webmaster DSBB
Sent: Thursday, 30 March 2006 9:17 AM
To: Kris K...........
Subject: RE: usrxleader.com

This is a well disguised subscription pharmacy!

AVOID!!! or you will find a monthly fee of $19.95 on your credit card that is hard to stop.
Please visit DrugStoreBestBuys scam resource information centre

Is is wise to be wary when prices are TOO cheap. Often relates to non delivery.
This site was started in 2005-08-26 so it is a newcomer.

There is no affiliate program which makes it hard to monitor and easy for it to cheat and get away with it for longer.

Contact us information is very inadequate. Suggesting an avoidance of customer support - can be a sign of a scammer.

From the site:USrxLeader.com is an affiliated website to frontierpharmacies.com and the order process, customer support and any other user interaction will be handled by frontierpharmacies.com.

Frontier Pharmacies is on our scammers list due to non delivery.

The contact details are US so that is encouraging but can just be the webdeveloper.

Hope this helps. For peace of mind, please refer to the DrugStoreBestBuys online pharmacies performance ratings list to select from pharmacies where you can buy without being scammed.

Hope this helps. Have a great day.

Melissa

Sunday, March 26, 2006

FDA Sends Approvable Letter For Thelin

The FDA sent an "approvable letter" to Encysive Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s for their new drug Thelin. Providing Thelin can meet certain conditions, it can be approved for treating a rare, often-fatal lung condition.

Thelin has the same active ingrediants as Pfizer's Viagra, sildenafil citrate.

The FDA did not disclose the conditions, however, the Houston-based Encysive Pharmaceuticals is seeking permission to sell Thelin for treating pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), which causes severe shortness of breath and often kills.

The failure to win full approval for Thelin will likely be viewed as positive for Swiss biotechnology company Actelion, which relies heavily on its PAH treatment Tracleer to sustain growth. The delay with Thelin will provide a boost to forecast sales for Actelion's product Tracleer.

Tracleer once had the PAH market pretty much to itself, it is now facing increased competition from Pfizer Inc.'s Revatio, containing the same active ingredient as Viagra. Thelin would be another direct competitor for treating the rare condition that often leads to the need for a heart and lung transplant.

A fourth drug for PAH called ambrisentan is being developed by Myogen Inc..

Follow the daily health and medical news updates, including the debate over allowing cheaper generic forms of medicines to compete on a free market.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Clamp Down on Cheap Medications

With the demand rising for cheaper pharmacy medications, manufacturers are pushing hard to stop the flow of generic medicines from entering USA.

Roche announced Friday that, working with 15 partners, it would increase production of Tamiflu by 33 percent by year's end. The company is aware that competition from manufacturers of generic medicines are targeting the product because of the increased demand for bird-flu treatments.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said that they have seen an increase in bogus treatments for high cholesterol, hypertension and obesity. Some generic drugs include products made with incorrect or no active ingredients, the wrong amount of medicine or by unlicensed manufacturers.

In 2004, Britain reported finding counterfeit versions of Reductil, an obesity treatment made by Abbott Laboratories, and copies of Cialis, an impotence drug manufactured by Eli Lilly. A year earlier, shipments of generic Lipitor, the cholesterol drug from Pfizer, made their way into drugstores in the United States.

The growth of Internet pharmacies has increased with the high demand for cheaper medications. Unfortunately, it has also created an opportunity for counterfeiters because consumers often do not know whom they are buying from. The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations in Geneva believe saales of prescription drugs over the Web may grow to $13.8 billion next year from $3.2 billion in 2003, according to Jupitermedia, a research firm based in Connecticut.

Seizures of generic drugs rose 40 percent last year, with Russia overtaking China for the first time as the country with the highest number of confiscations, according to a study by the Pharmaceutical Security Institute, based in Vienna, Virginia, which was founded in 2002 by the security directors of 14 drug makers.

The European Union has become more open to the importing of generic medicines since it expanded to include countries bordering Russia.

The arguements for and against the development of generic medications are many and complex. The big pharmaceutical companies claim that generic drugs undermine the research work for new drugs. In contrast to the generic manufacturers state that "big pharma" make excessive profits from patented medicines. Adding that much of the research is focussed on finding ways to modify an existing medication so that a new patent or extended patent can be applied.

The pharmacy ratings listing for reliable brand name and generic online pharmacies is an extensive guide, researched and built over a 5 year period. The independently compiled pharmacy comparison guide shows many trusted pharmacies, rated by performance.

An additional list of pharmacies to avoid and pharmacies that have closed is also maintained and updated. This list has a better alternative pharmacy option to consider listed against every avoid or closed pharmacy.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Pharmacy Shark Patrol - Sites to Avoid

Pharmacy Shark Patrol receives a regular flow of enquiries from subscribers asking for assistance on many subjects to do with online pharmacy purchasing.

The PSP aims to assist you to obtain all the many cost savings and benefits to avoid the many scams and bad practices online.

One of the most common requests is for a review on pharmacies rating.

This question received today from William is a typical request :

...."How does this company rate - canadianpharm.info" .....
Wiilliam

This is our typical answer:

Hi William,

I would avoid this site :

Hosted in UK
no valid SSL
No Google page rank and low alexa rank
Created On:19-Jan-2006 23:39:58 UTC - Be very wary
Admin for this site is in Indonesia
Registrant Organization:BigCompany (also a worry)

Without a good affiliate program, PSP can not properly monitor the pharmacies performance through our network of customers and affiliates. Affiliate programs are the best form of testing and monitoring a sites integrity.

I hope this will help you choose a reliable program in the future. Please consider visiting : DrugStoreBestBuys.com for the latestest info which pharmacy to trust and which OP to avoid.