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Internet pharmacy charged with filling prescriptions without a license TORONTO (May 20, 2002 6:16 a.m. EDT) - In recent years, busloads of Americans have crossed into Canada to buy cheaper prescription drugs with help from Canadian doctors. Now many of those customers, mostly senior citizens facing large medicine bills, make that trip by the Internet, creating a growing industry that is attracting the attention of regulators. On May 14, the Ontario College of Pharmacists filed the province's first charges against a Web site selling prescription drugs, accusing it of doing so without a license. It is the initial salvo in what could be a lengthy battle over how to regulate the Internet prescription drug industry, raising questions about whether technology has advanced faster than the governing laws and policies. "This is the first time we've done this," Layne Verbeek, spokesman for the Ontario college. "It's a new area." Verbeek said a body of rulings and court decisions is needed to ascertain if existing laws and regulations properly address the issues. The charges were filed against The Canadian Drug Store Inc., one of its directors, an Ontario pharmacist, an Ontario pharmacy, an Ontario physician and a Canadian drug wholesaler. Representatives of the Canadian Drug Store could not be reached for comment. "There's always entrepreneurs wanting to find ways around the rules to make money. There's nothing wrong with entrepreneurship, but we're really at the beginning of this," Verbeek said. "These won't be the last charges we lay." One of the most successful internet drug store entrepreneurs is Andrew Strempler, whose Mediplan Health Consulting Inc. in Manitoba fills about 1,000 prescriptions each day for U.S. customers who place orders through the Web sites RxNorth.com and Canadiandrugstore.com. His operation, which employs more than 100 people including eight pharmacists, only handles non-narcotic orders that have a prescription from doctors licensed in Canada. The service includes having a Canadian-licensed doctor co-sign prescriptions from U.S. doctors for American patients. While Canadian regulatory bodies say doctors only should sign prescriptions for patients they examine themselves, Strempler called that "kind of a dream." "How many doctors have prescribed a drug based on another doctor's opinion? That's the reality out there," he said. "The issue isn't whether the patients are receiving proper care. The issue is we are doing something new, and when you do something new, people are going to question it." Cases like the Ontario charges give the entire industry a bad name, said Strempler, who has a message on his Canadiandrugstore.com site noting it is different from The Canadian Drug Store Inc. cited by Ontario regulators. "We're fulfilling a need" for American senior citizens who cannot afford the higher-priced medicine south of the border, he said. "There's nothing scandalous in this industry. You'll always have one or two bad apples. We really hope that doesn't ruin the reputation in this industry." In the Ontario case, the College of Pharmacists filed 15 charges that accuse The Canadian Drug Store Inc. of operating an unaccredited Internet pharmacy without registered pharmacists from November 2001 to February 2002. It said the Toronto-based operation filled prescriptions written by U.S. doctors for U.S. patients. Along with lacking a license, such an operation violated policies for physicians and pharmacists set by the Ontario College of Pharmacists and the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons. The pharmacists college requires prescriptions written by Canadian doctors, while the physicians and surgeons college requires doctors to physically examine a patient before signing a prescription. Spokeswoman Kathryn Clarke of the physicians and surgeons college said the policy adopted in November 2000 responded to the busloads of Americans that pull up to walk-in clinics to get prescriptions from Canadian doctors. Now the situation has evolved with the emergence of the Internet industry. "It's increasing," Clarke said of Internet drug sales. "It's really a very complex issue that involves both countries and is only happening because the drug prices are different." Drugs are often cheaper in Canada because the government funds the medical system and approves the price of all patented medicines. The cheaper prices have long attracted Americans on prescription drug-buying sprees, especially in northern states that border Canada. Now it happens on the Internet, with Strempler's sites warning of delays in filling prescriptions due to high demand. By TOM COHEN, Associated Press Copyright 2002 AP Online Copyright 2001 Nando Media http://www.nando.net/technology/v-text/story/406178p-3235285c.html janet paterson: an akinetic rigid subtype, albeit perky, parky pd: 55/41/37 cd: 55/44/43 tel: 613 256 8340 email: [log in to unmask] smail: 375 Country Street, Almonte, Ontario, Canada, K0A 1A0 a new voice: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn