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Posted 6/25/2003 1:08 AM Updated 6/25/2003 2:26 AM

Problems grow with drugs bought on Net
By Julie Appleby, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON U.S. mail facilities are becoming overwhelmed with shipments of prescription drugs from around the world some of them counterfeit, unapproved or illegal and not enough is being done to stop it, congressional investigators said Tuesday.
In a wide-ranging hearing, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations heard from witnesses about the rising sales of prescription medications on the Internet and the involvement of criminals in the distribution of prescription drugs inside the USA. Witnesses and committee staff outlined a number of problems, including:

The Miami international mail facility alone gets an estimated 7 million packages containing prescription and illegal drugs each year.

Improper imports of prescription drugs "cannot be quickly destroyed, detained or returned to sender" because of the way the Food and Drug Administration interprets federal law.

Internet sales of prescription drugs are leading to a sharp increase in shipments from foreign countries to individuals. Investigators are also seeing an increase in bulk shipments from abroad, possibly meaning the drugs are headed for wholesalers or pharmacies.

Criminals are increasingly becoming involved in the nation's drug distribution network, leading to more cases of counterfeit and adulterated drugs getting to wholesalers, pharmacies and even patients.

The hearing comes as Congress debates adding drug coverage to Medicare, which might reduce the number of seniors seeking lower-cost medications from other countries via the Internet. At the same time, a controversial plan to allow U.S. residents greater access to lower-cost drugs from other countries, such as Canada, is also being debated in Congress.

That debate spilled over at the hearing, with some committee members arguing that the only way to slow Internet drug sales is to reduce demand by getting lower drug prices in the USA, while other members argued vehemently against price controls.

William Hubbard, associate commissioner for policy at the FDA, said the agency is doing what it can to stop Internet sales and prevent counterfeits from getting to pharmacies. The agency has warned consumers not to buy products from the Internet except from legitimate U.S. pharmacies.

Hubbard said online pharmacies claiming to be from Canada where safety regulations are similar to the USA's might not be in Canada. He showed one Web site claiming to be Canadian but said it was registered in Barbados. Another shipped drugs from India.