LegitScript, an Internet pharmacy verification organization, did a study using Bing, Microsoft’s search engine in June and July of 2009 finding that their advertisers are less than scrupulous.
LegitScript found that 90% of Microsoft’s ads lead to rogue sites including ones that sell unapproved counterfeit drugs, addictive medications without prescriptions, and ads for pharmacies in Calcutta, Russia and Eastern Europe. All of these “Internet pharmacies” are not legal pharmacies in America.
They searched for things like “generic medications,” “online pharmacy”, “Ambien” and “Viagra” and even actually ordered Cialis from one rogue pharmacy (it turned out to be counterfeit).
The report is actually quite interesting as it looks at how these pharmacies operate and how patients can get “tricked” into buying from these rogue sites.
It’s not really concerning to me that someone searching for Viagra will be directed to a rogue pharmacy. I get Viagra spam in my Inbox everyday. However, I also searched for “Lantus,” “Combivir” and “Plavix” (and a few others) that are not drugs of abuse or drugs for erectile dysfunction and I was directed to rogue pharmacies. These are drugs that patients could have real questions about. These are drugs that will not only not work if they are counterfeit, but may harm the patient if not taken.
To me, it is a little disconcerting that patients searching for information about their HIV medications will be sent to a rogue pharmacy to purchase what might be a counterfeit version.
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