Abstract:

This study assesses the trade-off between drug safety and price savings in online drug purchases. Focusing on five brand-name prescription drugs, we acquire 370 drug samples from 41 online pharmacies and test their authenticity. Of the 41 websites, 8 are clearly US-based and verified by the National Association of...

This study examines the price, conditions of purchase, and basic quality of five popular drugs purchased over the Internet.

There are many website pharmacies, including those from overseas, from which it is almost certainly safe to procure medicines, and U.S. consumers should be able to reduce their risk by relying on credentialing agencies recommended lists and by using common sense when examining packaging and pills.

US/EU companies that protect their drug brands in turn protect our lives. We need other countries to do more and we need to help them in doing so.

Americans should be permitted to buy medicines online for personal use; there are many sites providing good quality medicines at low prices, and importation for personal use is not likely to undermine the pharmaceutical market.

The reality is that we simply do not know how efficacious most  drugs really are. 

Purchasing drugs over the Internet has significant benefits, but it can also be dangerous.