The scientific study, “Unveiling the Mystery of Online Pharmacies: An Audit study,” was conducted by Roger Bate, Ph.D., and Aparna Mathur, Ph.D., of the American Enterprise Institute along with Ginger Zhe Jin, Ph.D., from the University of Maryland Department of Economics.

The audit, performed in two rounds between 2009 and 2011, analyzed several popular maintenance medications and one lifestyle product: a total of 370 samples from 41 individual U.S. and Canadian or international online pharmacy websites.  The majority of the website sources, and all of the Canadian sites, were accredited by CIPA.  Many of the Canadian and other international sites were also approved by PharmacyChecker.com, a reputable independent verifier of online pharmacies, both within and outside the U.S.

“CIPA is delighted with these findings.  The perfect safety record our licensed pharmacies have maintained during the decade since the association was formed in 2002 stands as proof of our excellent safety standards,” said Tim Smith, CIPA’s president and general manager.  “This scientific evidence supports what CIPA’s hundreds of thousands of American patients already know — that our pharmacies are safe, affordable and legitimate sources to rely on for their vital medications.”

The entire Audit study is available at the website of the National Bureau of Economic Research.  Read it here.

Find out more about CIPA’s high standards here.

The Canadian International Pharmacy Association (CIPA) is pleased to report that its campaign to fight rogue internet pharmacies is seeing positive results.  Since October 2011, a concentrated effort has challenged websites that wrongfully display the CIPA Certification Mark.  To date, over 125 rogue pharmacies have been forced to remove the fraudulent CIPA seal, or have had their website disabled entirely.

The CIPA Seal is a mark of professionalism, quality, integrity and safety.  It tells patients that an online pharmacy has met CIPA’s strict safety standards. The CIPA Seal assures a consumer that they are working with a government licensed brick and mortar pharmacy; one that requires a valid prescription, protects the personal medical and financial information, and has a licensed pharmacist available for consultation.

“The rogue sites that we have responded to our challenge are a disservice to consumers who have turned to the internet for affordable alternative to high cost U.S drugs.” said CIPA President and General Manager Tim Smith.  “We will continue our aggressive action against such predators to ensure that patients have safe online pharmacies from CIPA member websites where we have maintained a 100% perfect safety record over the past 10 years.”

 To verify that a Canadian online pharmacy is a certified CIPA member, click here and type in the website URL.  For more information on becoming a CIPA member, visit our membership page.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate counterpart, the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) are designed to protect the interests of U.S. businesses and fight counterfeiting, but because of their overly broad language, legitimate websites could be shut-down overnight.

Not only would SOPA and PIPA create an ‘Internet blacklist’ and ‘break the Internet,’ but the legislation would also take away Americans’ ability to order safe, affordable prescription medications from Canadian pharmacies.

“Hundreds of thousands of patients, including more than 90,000 in Florida alone, depend on CIPA member pharmacies for their prescription medications.  Due to the exorbitant cost of prescription drugs in the U.S., Americans are forced to turn elsewhere and cannot survive without their access to CIPA pharmacies for vital maintenance medications,” said CIPA President Troy Harwood-Jones.  “SOPA and PIPA must be defeated— even the White House announced its concerns over these bills this past weekend.  That’s why we’re joining Reddit, Wikipedia and others tomorrow in urging our customers to take action by contacting their representatives to insist they vote ‘no’ on SOPA.”

For the entire day on January 18, visitors to CIPA member websites saw a splash page notifying them that their access to these licensed, legitimate pharmacies was in jeopardy and could be lost if SOPA is passed.

The Canadian Intenational Pharmacy Association (CIPA) is taking action against rogue internet pharmacies wrongfully displaying the CIPA certification seal on unapproved websites.

CIPA member pharmacies sell prescription drugs made by leading name-brand manufacturers at prices up to 80 percent less than if purchased in the U.S. These licensed pharmacies serve more than 1 million U.S. customers each year and have a 100 percent safety record since CIPA’s founding in 2002.

Additionally, CIPA is the official accrediting organization for all online pharmacy advertisements on Google Canada, Yahoo! Canada and Bing Canada.

The CIPA certification seal displayed on an internet pharmacy website tells the consumer that the pharmacy has met CIPA’s strict safety standards. These standards include requiring a valid doctor’s prescription, obtaining demographic and medical information from the patient, having a licensed pharmacist on staff and having a physician review patient information before authorizing a prescription.

“The CIPA certification is a mark of professionalism, quality, integrity and safety,” said CIPA President Troy Harwood-Jones. “We welcome online pharmacies that meet these safety standards to apply for our certification and go through our exhaustive process. However, we will not allow pharmacies that do not meet our strict safety standards to misappropriate our certification trade mark and attempt to deceive consumers. CIPA will aggressively protect our seal and our excellent reputation.”

To verify that a Canadian pharmacy is certified by CIPA, visit http://www.cipa.com/verify-pharmacy/ and type in the website URL. For more information on becoming a CIPA member, visit http://www.cipa.com/membership/.

Fortunately, CIPA pharmacies are completely trustworthy, only sell safe brand name drugs upon receipt of a valid prescription and keep patient information completely confidential. We always caution our patients to take special care when ordering online.

Consumers should always make sure they order only from sites that carry the CIPA red oval Seal and that are verified as Active Members as www.cipa.com. Call the CIPA office if you need more assistance.

Read the entire DEA Extortion Scam Alert.

You can trust CIPA pharmacies for all of their safety procedures, but there are  rogue operators on the web that try to lure consumers into unreliable territory. Spam activity from those bad guys reduced significantly a year ago with the closure of the Spamit affiliate program, but the practice continues to be a nuisance and is building.

CIPA feels it’s worthwhile to share information about the spam artists and the network of rogue pharmacies that’s behind it. This article from Brian Krebs at Krebs on Security is an excellent primer on the devious work of people who prey on unsuspecting patients. Thank goodness that CIPA exists to keep consumers safe.

Click here to read Brian’s article.