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 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 Troy Harwood-Jones.  “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 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.

On August 24, 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Google has agreed to pay $500 million for allowing some questionable pharmacies to advertise the sale of ‘controlled prescription drugs’ prior to 2009. While the Department of Justice action mentions online Canadian pharmacies as the target of their investigation, their announcement does not clearly state the fact that the legitimate, licensed CIPA pharmacies were not their focus.

CIPA members are legitimate, licensed pharmacies that sell brand-name medications for chronic conditions and require that patients have a valid prescription from their doctor. CIPA members do not, nor have they ever, engaged in the sale of illegal, counterfeit, or ‘controlled substances’.

Each year, CIPA members serve over a million Americans, mostly seniors living on fixed incomes who can’t afford their medications at home. Since forming in 2002, CIPA has maintained a 100% perfect safety record.

The online businesses targeted by the Department of Justice investigations are unscrupulous rogues that need to be withdrawn and banned from the internet. CIPA has long supported actions that result in safety for patients in the online world. The term ‘rogue pharmacy’ commonly refers to businesses that sell medications without a prescription or market drugs that don’t meet industry standards of safety and efficacy, which includes illegal counterfeit drugs and medicines. Some rogues even take a patient’s money without providing any service whatsoever. Among the most notorious are operations that masquerade as Canadian yet are fronts for organized crime – they are neither Canadian, nor pharmacies.

In 2010 Google (along with Bing and Yahoo!) named CIPA as the accreditation authority for companies wishing to place online pharmacy advertising in Canada. CIPA is proud to have been chosen to be entrusted to verify the legitimacy of online pharmacies as a front line of defense for patient safety. CIPA also is expanding its listing of rogue sites at www.cipa.com to further protect consumers and help them identify and select reliable, safe pharmacies.

CIPA stands out as the gold standard for distance care pharmacy services due to its strict safety protocols that have been in place since our organization was founded nearly a decade ago. CIPA continues to provide the world’s safest distance care pharmacy services.

Microsoft and Yahoo! join Google in recognition of CIPA high standards for safe dispensing of prescription drugs via the Internet

Winnipeg, Manitoba, June 7, 2010 – Microsoft and Yahoo! have joined Google in naming the Canadian International Pharmacy Association (CIPA) as the official verifier for all online pharmacies selling prescription drugs in Canada.

With this announcement, all websites that sell, or facilitate the sale, of prescription drugs will be required to meet CIPA’s stringent safety protocols at every stage of the dispensing process.  This new policy takes effect immediately for Microsoft and Yahoo!; it has been in effect since March 1, 2010 for online pharmaceutical advertising on Google.ca.

Founded in 2002, CIPA is a Canadian association of licensed, retail pharmacies that sell prescription drugs made by the leading name-brand manufacturers.  CIPA member pharmacies have filled more than one million prescriptions a year, with a 100 percent perfect safety record.

“CIPA has a perfect safety record in filling prescriptions via the Internet to Canadians and Americans.  We’re pleased that Microsoft and Yahoo! have now joined Google in recognizing our high standards, and using CIPA to distinguish between legitimate, safe online pharmacies and ‘rogue’ operations,” said CIPA General Manager Tim Smith.