Generic Aspirin pain medication pills are shown in the pharmacy of the J.W.C.H. safety-net clinic in the center of skid row in downtown Los Angeles, July 30, 2007.
Generic Aspirin pain medication pills are shown in the pharmacy of the J.W.C.H. safety-net clinic in the center of skid row in downtown Los Angeles, July 30, 2007. Reuters/Stringer

One prominent online pharmacy in Canada has come under the scanner of U.S. prosecutors. The pharmacy, Canada Drugs Ltd, is Manitoba-based and hogged the legal spotlight after a recent Canadian police raid. It had attracted a secret court file for its advisory that led multimillion-dollar convictions of many U.S. doctors for buying its drugs. In the past also, the U.S. authorities have accused the Winnipeg firm for organising a shipment of fake cancer drug Avastin to the U.S, touching off a counterfeit-pharmaceuticals scandal and that made headlines.

Cancer Drugs

From selling drugs online to individual patients, Canada Drugs developed the business of marketing cancer and other wholesale drugs to American physicians at cheaper rates. That landed in most of its troubles. More specifically trading in sensitive “injectable” drugs, which heightened FDA concerns, reports Vancouver Sun.

Tipped off by British regulators, the FDA revealed in 2012 a counterfeit shipment of injectable Avastin having reached numerous U.S. doctors. The raid conducted on Canada Drugs’ premises in March must have stemmed from the cancer-drug affair, said Jim Dahl, a retired assistant director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration criminal investigations unit.

“Do I think it’s related to the Avastin thing? Absolutely, I don’t think there’s any question about it,” said Dahl, a director of the pharmaceutical industry-funded Partnership for Safe Medicines. “Their entire business model … is in violation of U.S. law," he quipped. American officials have targeted many Manitoba-based Internet pharmacists in the past. Andrew Strempler, who sold his RxNorth to Canada Drugs owner Thorkelson, was jailed in 2013 for marketing of unapproved and allegedly counterfeit drugs to Americans.

Internet pharmacies

In last decade, Canada had seen the mushrooming of many Internet pharmacies largely in Manitoba and they made hundreds of millions a year, selling cheaper products to Americans, who are facing high prices for prescription drugs. The boom dimmed partly because the companies had problems in getting supply from the Canadian market prompting some to source drugs offshore.

The mail-order drug business came under the FDA scanner for exporting drugs that were not U.S.-approved, though they were often the same medications made by the same companies, produced for a different market. Despite setbacks, the Internet business still serves a million Americans annually, and boasts a “perfect safety record,” said Tim Smith, spokesman for the Canadian International Pharmacy Association.

Recently, the FDA warned 350 doctors that the online wrinkle remover Botox was unauthorized and could be counterfeit. In a letter, it said they are unapproved foreign versions of Allergan's Botox could be fake. The agency ordered to stop using the products. Among the misbranded drugs on which there is a caution as unapproved by the FDA include Abraxane, Alimta, Avastin, Eloxatin, Gemzar and Rituxan.

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