Many Americans are now buying their prescription medicines from Canadian Internet pharmacies. A Wall Street Journal article on November 20, 2003 (“FDA Gets Tougher on Drugs From Canada”) reported that Americans buy between $700 and $800 million worth of drugs per year from foreign Internet pharmacies. This is because prescription drugs in Canada can be as much as 30% to 50% cheaper than those in the U.S.

A top official from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently expressed concern that Canadian Internet pharmacies are shipping counterfeit drugs to the U.S. which might be posing a danger to American patients. However, Health Canada disagrees. Canada’s Health Minister, Anne McLellan, says that nothing has been found to show that unsafe drugs are being shipped from Canada to patients in the United States.

What are counterfeit drugs?
A “counterfeit drug” is one that claims something on the drug’s package label that is not true. It makes the consumer think that they are receiving a legal drug when they are really not. The drug may be changed, so what’s in it is not what the label says. There are many ways to make changes:

• A cheaper drug is sold as a more expensive drug.
• There is no active drug in the product so the patient takes “sugar pills.”
• The medicine is “watered-down” or does not have as much active drug as it should.

A counterfeit drug doesn’t have to be a new medicine - - older drugs can also be targets. People counterfeit medicine because they can make a lot of money, and because it’s hard to tell if a drug has been changed.

Are counterfeit drugs in Canada?
To date there have been few, if any, problems with counterfeit drugs in Canada. Canadian Health Minister McLellan assures Canadians that drugs approved for use in Canada are safe and go through strict standards to get approved.

Canada and the United States work together to prevent counterfeit drugs from getting on the market. For example, in May 2003, a case of counterfeit LIPITOR® (a medicine used to help lower cholesterol) was found in the U.S. The United States informed Canada and Health Canada alerted Canadian consumers and health care professionals right away.

The governments can certainly help protect consumers but every consumer still needs to learn how to protect themselves from getting counterfeit drugs.

How can I protect myself?
If you order drugs through the Internet, find out about your pharmacy. Legal, licensed pharmacies should always:

• Insist that your prescription is from a doctor who knows you. This protects your health and makes sure that the medicine is safe for you to take and does not interact with any of your other prescription medicines.
• Have a real street address and phone number, not just an e-mail address.
• Have pharmacists who can talk to you both before you start taking the medicine and later if you have any questions.
• Have a license number posted on the web site.

If you are not sure if a pharmacy is legal, call your province’s regulator. Search the Internet for “College of Pharmacists” and your province’s name to get the phone number.

For tips on choosing an Internet pharmacy, use this web page to find some Internet pharmacies that have met the standards of groups that accredit them: http://www.canadian-online-pharmacies.net/canadian-pharmacies-online.html.

Health Canada also has a toll-free hotline you can call if you have questions or complaints about a drug product: 1-800-267-9675.

Everyone wants the lowest price for their medicines, but just one counterfeit drug could make you sick. The cost to purchase more prescription drugs to treat the complications as well as the cost of possible time away from work could immediately wipe out any cost savings you had. Prescription medicines are still the most cost-saving way to treat sickness but they must be of high quality and taken correctly.