Libby Baney Warns Patients About Unsafe Online Pharmacies

At the Partnership for Safe Medicine's annual exchange, Libby Baney of B&D Consulting advised patients on avoiding counterfeit drugs and unsafe online pharmacies, ThePartnershipforSafeMedicines.org reported in its review, "Panel 2: Libby Baney, Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies."

Baney acknowledged that between 50 percent and 90 percent of all medicines purchased online may be counterfeit and that only about four percent of online pharmacies are legitimate, according to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, the expert organization for legitimate medication. She also referenced a study estimating that 90 percent of all prescription drugs sold worldwide may be counterfeit.

Patients are lured to rogue online pharmacies through Internet searches, email spam and social networking sites, said Baney. Purchasing medications from an illegitimate source can lead to inappropriate dosing, lack of monitoring for side effects and intentional abuse of prescription drugs, ThePartnershipforSafeMedicines.org reported.

Baney serves as counsel and strategic advisor to the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies, an organization with a mission to ensure that medicine purchased online is of the same quality as that purchased from brick-and-mortar pharmacies. She advised patients to be wary of any online pharmacy that does not require a prescription, has unregulated or unapproved medicines available, or lacks a valid pharmacy licenses.

Improving federal and state laws and regulations is the best way to address the rogue pharmacy problem, according to Baney. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is working on legislation in Congress to establish a registry of all legitimate online pharmacy websites.