Our regulatory agencies mean well, but they sometimes miss the boat. In this video, the FDA gives some tips to help doctors and patients avoid buying counterfeit medications on the Internet. But do these tips really help the average consumer?

Here is a list of the anti-counterfeiting tips given in the video and why these fall short of protecting consumers:

1)    Only shop from US based websites.
Any website can claim to be US based. Only very Internet-savvy customers know how to look up a site’s IP address and determine if the website is actually based in the USA. And there are probably ways to conceal an IP address as well.

2)    Only shop from online stores that have the VIPPS (Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites) seal.
Anyone can copy-and-paste this seal and stick the image on their website.

3)    Compare and contrast the medicine you buy online with the medicine you bought in a physical pharmacy in the past.
Counterfeiters know how to mimic the look and feel of products very well and customers are not trained to recognize the subtle differences between a real and counterfeit product.

4)    Expensive drugs with large sales volumes are most susceptible to counterfeits.
This is mostly true, but the reality is a bit more nuanced than this. Counterfeiters want to make as large a profit as possible. Popular expensive drugs are the easiest way to do this, but replicating cheaper drugs with high sales volumes accomplishes the same goal.

The reality of the drug market is also changing. Many expensive brand name drugs have patents that are due to expire soon or have recently expired.  There will be fewer expensive drugs in a few years because there will be more competition. This means that counterfeiting of cheaper drugs will increase.

Want to learn more about pharmaceutical anti-counterfeiting strategies? Make an appointment with an InkSure representative.