E-drug: Kansas sues internet medicine suppliers
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BMJ 1999;318:1720 ( 26 June )
News
Kansas sues internet medicine suppliers
Fred Charatan , Florida
The US state of Kansas is taking legal action against companies
selling prescription-only medicines on the internet, in the first
action of this kind.
The Kansas attorney general, Carla Stovall, has joined the Kansas
State Board of Healing Arts and the Kansas Board of Pharmacy to file
consumer protection lawsuits and restraining orders against seven
companies selling prescription-only drugs on the internet. According
to Attorney General Stovall, at least "a couple of hundred" websites
sell prescription drugs without the buyer being examined by a doctor
licensed to practise in Kansas or obtaining a prescription (among
them, CybRxpress, at www.cybrxpress.com, and Online Physicians, at
www.stiverson.com).
During a "sting" operation, a minor, acting under the direction of the
attorney general's Consumer Protection Division, was able to buy the
diet drug sibutramine (Meridia) and sildenafil by filling out an
on-line application, using his true age, 16, and his mother's credit
card.
Commenting on the case, Steven Varady, of University Urologists in
Palm Beach, warned: "Viagra is a potentially lethal medication when
taken in conjunction with nitrate preparations. Hopefully, the
prescribing physician, or even the responsible pharmacist filling a
prescription will offer warnings to the patient seeking the
medication. With internet sale, both of these `screens' are bypassed.
Danger lurks."
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