Today's post from webmd.com (see link below) is a timely warning from the FDA for both patients and doctors to be extra alert for fake drugs, which are flooding the market at the moment, especially via the internet. Even doctors and chemists are often on the look out for cheaper options as financial restrictions squeeze even further and can be seduced by aggressive marketing methods. However, more at risk are patients who can't afford certain drugs via their insurance policies or lack of them and search the internet for drugs they would normally be prescribed by their doctors. Believe it or not, many people living with severe neuropathy are trawling the internet for their pain killers as government restrictions make it more difficult to receive them via normal channels. This especially applies to opioid analgesics and although it's perhaps understandable that if they are the only things that help you will do whatever in your power to get them, it's fraught with danger. Many of these drugs are either under-strength or over-strength, or contain dangerous chemicals and taking them may bring even greater problems than you now have. Finding reputable sources of drugs is extremely difficult as they all say they are completely trustworthy etc, etc. It's a vicious circle and a very dangerous one without obvious solutions.
WebMD News from HealthDay By Robert Preidt, HealthDay Reporter,
TUESDAY, Sept. 23, 2014 (HealthDay News)
Health care providers ordering meds should view 'too good to be true' offers with suspicion, agency says
The number of 'rogue' wholesale distributors selling fake or unapproved prescription drugs is growing, so doctors need to be vigilant when purchasing medicines, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned Tuesday.
In a statement, the agency said the problem is so widespread that it has launched a program to educate doctors and other health care providers and administrators about proper drug purchasing procedures. The program aims to protect patients from taking potentially harmful counterfeit drugs.
The "Know Your Source" program urges health care professionals to only buy prescription drugs from wholesale drug distributors licensed in their states. Doing so will reduce the risk of giving unsafe or ineffective drugs to patients.
The FDA cautioned physicians to avoid offers that sound too good to be true, and to question aggressive marketing tactics and major discounts on prescription drugs suggesting that the medicines may be stolen, fake, substandard or unapproved.
The agency urged doctors to verify that they are only receiving FDA-approved products. Unapproved drugs may contain unknown or harmful ingredients, or may not have been made, transported or stored under proper conditions, the agency said.
View Article Sources
SOURCE: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, news release, Sept. 23, 2014
http://www.webmd.com/news/20140923/fda-warns-doctors-of-danger-from-fake-drugs
http://www.webmd.com/news/20140923/fda-warns-doctors-of-danger-from-fake-drugs
No comments:
Post a Comment