Most generics work the same as brand name medications and can be a more cost-effective than brand name medications. Although generics can be a great alternative to costly brand name medications, there are a few things to research before making any purchases.
- Is the generic legal? A generic drughas the same active ingredient but is labeled under its scientific name, not brand name. A generic version of the drug can be manufactured and sold only when the patent of a brand name medication expires. For example,generic Latisse does not exits because the manufacturing companies still have an active patent on these medications, whereas generic Soma can be sold as Carisoprodol since the original patent has expired. Do some simple research before you buy to make sure that you generic is even legal in the USA before you buy.
-Is the generic bio-equivalent? The FDA required that a generic version of a drug must use the same active ingredients as the brand name drug and meet the same standards for quality and safety including dosage strength, the way it works, the way it is taken, the way it’s intende
Generic Medications
d to be used and the health conditions that it treats. A pharmaceutical manufacturer that wants to sell their generic drug must offer proof of bio-equivalency to the FDA. To be considered bio-equivalent, the active ingredients in a generic drug must be absorbed at a similar rate and in a similar amount as the brand name equivalent. Many companies will offer “generic” versions of medications that are actually herbal treatments, not an bio-equivalent of the brand name medication they claim to be. Check to make sure that the medication you are ordering is FDA approved before you buy.
-Can you tolerate the inactive ingredients? Although generic drugs must have the same active ingredients as the brand name versions, the inactive ingredients may be different and some people may have allergic reactions to inactive ingredients. Inactive ingredients can include colors, preservatives, and fillers. The generic version doesn’t have to act exactly the same but it does have to meet specific criteria set by the FDA. Make sure that the generics you are buying does not have any allergens that you will react to, such as fish, gluten or pollens.
-Which company produces the generic? Just like brand name, the FDA puts all generic drugs through a review process to assure quality, safety, and efficacy. The FDA requires that generic manufacturing plants meet the same standards as brand name plants. The FDA conducts approximately 3,500 on-site inspections each year to ensure compliance. In fact, did you know that approximately 50% of all generic drugs are made by the same brand name companies? Before you buy, check for information to make sure your generic was produced here in the USA with a reputable company.
Although this article is a few years old, and pharmacycards.com not longer exists- it outlines the financial risks of purchasing from an overseas pharmacies. MSNBC reports about an online pharmacy scam that is automatically withdrawing money from customer’s banking accounts without their permission. Read the full article here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4534338/ns/technology_and_science-security
CNN recently did a story on two online pharmacies that are filling orders for customers without first having a valid prescription. See the complete story and video here: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/19/us.online.pharmacies.probe/index.html?hpt=T2 This just serves as a remind that there is a right and wrong way to order medication online and the FDA is paying close attention to this increasingly troubled industry.
“This is a pretty large ring of at least 200 websites that acted as internet pharmacies that were basically selling drugs — prescription drugs — without requiring a valid prescription,” John Horton, a former official in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, told CNN. “These affidavits indicate this was a multiyear, multimillion-dollar operation involving thousands and thousands of prescriptions. Going back in time, there were even deaths involved with this organization.”
You may be one of the unfortunate people whose name and phone number is on a leads list for telemarketers. I don’t know how one gets on this list, but I do know that once you are on the list, your information has been distributed across the globe and most likely have and will continue to receive numerous phone calls asking you to place an order over the phone with them today. Some of these calls are legitimate and some are scammers.
First off, if you are getting unsolicited calls, meaning that you did not asked to or agreed to be called, you are most likely on a “lead list” which is usually sold to many different companies, so you are getting calls from a number of different organizations. While only a few domestic companies buy leads, a ton of international call centers do. You are probably familiar with call centers that you call into- many US companies have outsource their customer support to call centers across the globe in places in India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Dominican Republic, and other emerging markets. (The movie “Outsourced” is a great movie about a US company that moved their customer service center to India.) There is also a lot of outbound call centers -or telemarketers- that make money by buying leads and then trying making sales on those leads. Most of these outbound call centers are affiliates, so they make money on commissions per sale, not on number of people called, so they only way they get paid is when you get out your credit card. Below is 5 tell-tale signs that you are being contacted by a less-than-trustworthy call center and clear signs that you should not give this person your contact info.
1) Is the phone number they are calling from blocked or does it look like a local area code?Obviously blocked numbers are a little sketchy but the ones you would not suspect is calls from you local area code. Of course, you are more likely to pick up your phone when you see a local number and much more likely to place an order if you think they are right down the street. A lot of international call centers will pay for a call forwarding service that they actually call into and then their call is forwarded on a local number. One way to test if its a call forward service is to try and call them back on the same number. Since it is simply a forwarding service, usually you can’t.
2) Are they claiming to already have your order online and just have a few questions for you?This is probably the easiest way for call center agents who are up to no good to get your information. They will make it seem like they already have your order and try to confuse you, when you know that you have not placed any orders. They might say something like “You are on an automatic re-order so I just need to confirm your billing address and credit card number to process your order”. Don’t fall for this one, if you did not place an order or don’t remember if you did or not, tell them that you want to cancel any pending orders and then call the company that you usually deal with and place a new order. Keep in mind that this is NOT the same type of call as a confirmation calls. Confirmation calls come from the parent company and all they need to know is that you authorized and verify the order, they will not ask you for credit card information.
3) Are they claming to be a doctors or pharmacists?You can be guaranteed that doctors and pharmacists have much better things to do than call you and try to sell you medication. If someone calls you and says “Oh I see that you suffer from male pattern baldness, you should try taking Fluoxetine. Trust me, I’m a doctor.” These people are not doctors or pharmacists and cannot dispense any kind of medical advice. Don’t listen to them, take your health into your own hands and see a local doctor that you trust.
4) Are they promising you an amazing deal or a free bonus gift? This is the #1 scam that most people fall for.What some call centers might do is tell you that you are getting super cheap Viagra for $50 and then when they actually get your credit card number and hang up the phone, they change their mind and decide they want to charge you $800. A more likely scenario is that they say the will charge you $800 and not only will you get the Viagra, but they will also send you two bonus bottles and a bottle of Oxycotin free. Then when the parent company calls you and asked if you verified an order for $800 for Viagra, you will say yes and then you will get your Viagra, but your bonus gifts never show up. In life and in business, there are no free meals.
5) Are they coercing you into placing an order? You would not believe some of the awful, heinous things that some call centers will say to get you to place your order. The worst customer complaint I ever heard what that a man was forced to place the order becasue the call center told him “I know where you live, I will come to your house and rape your wife if you do not place an order”. Not only will call centers use various threats, they will try to get sympathy orders too. I’ve heard “If you do not place the order, my boss will fire me”. Don’t be scared, these are empty threats. Simply say ”No thank you”, politely ask them to remove your name and number from their list and hang up the phone. Remember, they need to make the sale to get paid and they can and will say anything to make that happen.
VIPPS is a accreditation program set up by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, (NABP), which is an committee created to enforce uniform standards across pharmacies here in the USA and abroad. NABP decided there was a need to regulate online pharmacies so they created the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) program. It is quite difficult to become VIPPS accredited- according to the NABP website, they have reviewed nearly 6,000 sites — only 4% of those online sites appear to be in compliance with VIPPS procedures. Currently, there is only 21 VIPPS accredited online pharmacies.
In order to become a VIPPS accredited online pharmacy, the online pharmacy must be able to document that they meet all 19 points of evaluation for the program, as well as provide a $8000 application fee and a yearly renewal fee of $4,000-$7,000. According to the VIPPS website, the most common reason that sites are not able to get VIPPS accreditation is below:
83% do not require a valid prescription
42% offer foreign or non-FDA-approved drugs
55% do not provide a physical address
1,411 sites are located outside of the United States and selling drugs illegally to patients in the US
If you read my posts about how to tell if a pharmacy is fraudulent and how to tell if they are legitimate, you know that I would never recommend buying from a pharmacy that participates in any of the four activities mentioned above. So why is my recommended sites not VIPPS accredited? Part of it is it the initial cost and yearly renewal fee. Although it would not break a company, it is something that needs to be planned for. In addition to the cost, the 19 point evaluation is very rigorous, including a inspection of the dispensing pharmacy by a NABP representative. If you read my post how online pharmacies work, you know that that one company might be working with a number of pharmacies across the USA, which make inspection difficult. There are a number of other reasons that make it hard to get VIPPS accreditation so as of now, the online pharmacies that I am recommending have not been able to obtain this. However, I do know that the companies I am recommending want to become VIPPS accredited and have been working closely with NABP so I believe it’s simply a matter of time until they do become VIPPS accredited. If you have any questions or comments about the VIPPS program, please leave them below.
Contrary to popular belief, there is no legal generic form of Viagra, Cialis or Levitra. The patents on these drugs are still active, Viagra being the oldest and due to expire 2012 (Levitra expires in 2018 and Cialis expires between 2017 and 2020). So why is there so many sites out there selling these so called “generics’?
Offshore pharmacies are trying to make a buck by taking advantage of the high cost of these medications. Most of these drugs are made overseas in India and China, where they are not subject to US patent law. That means they can legally produce the medication, but it is illegal to ship them in to or sell in the USA. Not only is it breaking the patent law, but these drugs are not FDA approved and can be very dangerous.
These illegal websites often promote “Viagra” but send the consumer counterfeit drug. Some sites promote “generic Viagra” or “generic sildenafil citrate”-although this is not legally possible since there is no FDA-approved generic version of Viagra. The tactic can be misleading to consumers, who routinely purchase legitimate FDA-approved generic versions of other drugs. Pfizer receives letters from consumers who unknowingly purchase fake Viagra from such websites, and receive drug that doesn’t work or makes them ill.
According to a recent national survey of 676 men aged 35+, 20 percent of men who purchase ED medications buy them online, and two-thirds of them don’t check to see if the website they are purchasing from is legitimate. Only 38 percent of all men surveyed believe it is essential to have a doctor’s prescription in order to purchase Viagra.
According to the FDA, drug counterfeiters defraud consumers by selling products that resemble legitimate drugs but may contain inactive or incorrect ingredients; contain improper doses of active ingredients; or be otherwise contaminated. Other risks and consequences of purchasing ED products online from illegitimate websites may include:
Safety Risks:
– Fake or “generic” ED drugs may be manufactured in unregulated factories, often in regions of the world that do not share the same rigorous standards for pharmaceutical manufacturing applied in the U.S.
– The drugs may contain dangerous additives
– Obtaining ED pills through these sources requires no physician consultation or assessment of potential interactions with other drugs being taken by the individual
–The illegal drugs may not work as claimed, or at all
Medical News Today, August 4, 2004. Retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/11656.php
There are a zillion online pharmacy sites out there but you might be surprised to know that most of them are actually working for the same parent company. Have you every heard of affiliate marketing? I didn’t really know what it was until I started working at an online pharmacy myself and learned all about this business and how it operates. Let me outline below the entire process from order to delivery.
1) You find an affiliate’s site online.Most online pharmacies, about 80% are affiliate sites. An affiliate is someone who signs up to market and sell the product (in this case, medication) and receives a commission for every order they make from the parent company. There is about 10 big parent pharmacy companies out there that depend 100% on their affiliates to market and sell for them, some of the biggest being MyRxCash, CartAdmin and Health Solutions Network. It kinda works like Mary Kay, where Mary Kay corporate has reps they rely on to sell the products, but the reps are actually considered their own company, separate legal entities from Mary Kay corporate. Most likely, if you are ordering medication online, you are ordering from an affiliate’s site. All theRecommended Sites are run by affiliates. You can find out which parent company you are buying from by reading the fine print when you go to place an order.
2. You place the order, and payment is processed.One the order is made, the affiliate’s job is done and it becomes the responsibility of the parent company to make sure the order is processed properly. The parent company has relationships with banks, who process the payment. At this point, usually affiliate is paid their commission for making the sale.
3. The order is approved by the doctor. Affiliate companies have a network of doctors and pharmacies around the nation that process your order through a extremely sophisticated online networking system. Sometimes the parent affiliate company is headquartered hundreds or thousands of miles away from the doctors and pharmacies that are reviewing the prescriptions and filling the orders. Most of the doctors that work with parent companies have a their own practice too and see people in person so it’s just the same as talking with your local doctor about your need for a medication. To prevent anytime of malpractice, most good parent companies will pay their doctors for every script they review, even if they choose not to approve or refill the prescription.
4. The order is sent to a pharmacy to be refilled. If the doctor chooses to write you a new prescription, the order is then sent to a pharmacy to fill. Some pharmacies are brick and mortar shops that service customers in person and some are wholesale distributors. Pharmacies can be paid either by number of orders filled or by type of order, it depends on what they have set up with the parent company. Often times you can tell which pharmacy filled your order by looking that the label on your medicine bottle when it comes- if not, you should be able to call your parent company customer service line and ask them.
5. The order is shipped and delivered to you. The parent company will usually have a relationship with a shipping company that makes sure to get your order to you as quickly as possible. Once you get your orders the process is done and starts again with the next time you make a purchase. If you have questions about the order or are ready to place a new order, you would call customer service, which is usually at the parent company headquarters.
As you can see, this process is extremely complicated with a number of parties involved in getting you your order. This industry is one of many that was made possible by the internet and some genius programmers and is continuing to grow by leaps and bounds as customers begin to see the benefits of getting their prescription filled through an online pharmacy.
1. Does the site require a paid membership? Fraudulent web sites often require you to pay a monthly fee by promising you a product discount for joining. Legitimate online pharmacies do not need to charge you a membership fee.
2. Does the site say they offer automatic refills?Online pharmacies usually review the prescription after every refills so automatic refills are not an option. Do not order from a site that says it keeps your credit card on file to send automatic refills.
3. Do they ship everywhere? Each state has its own regulations that govern the shipping of prescription medications and many states prohibit prescription medication from being sent by mail or other courier without a face-to-face doctor visit. If a site claims to ship to all 50 states or to ship internationally, stay away!
4. Do they state the delivery driver will leave the package at your door? An adult 18 years or older MUST BE present to sign for the package when your order arrives. Because of the medical nature of the merchandise inside, no carrier will simply leave it without a signature. However, you can often have your package shipped to a “mail-boxes” type facility where an adult is present to sign for shipments.
5. Do they have extended or delayed shipping times? You’ll be tipped off to the fact that you’re not dealing with a U.S.-based company if the site mentions that your shipment will pass through customs or require more than 14 days to deliver. Because federal law restricts the re-importation of prescription medications across U.S. borders, you run the risk of your order being intercepted by officials with no recourse.
6. Have you received phone calls from the actual pharmacy or pharmacist?Generally speaking, you will not receive a phone call directly from the pharmacy unless there is a question concerning an existing order and that is rare. Keep in mind, dispensing pharmacies themselves simply DO NOT telemarket. However, there are legitimate web sites whose affiliates may take your order by phone. The key is that they not represent themselves as an actual “pharmacy” and that you are familiar with anyone who asks for payment or other information by phone.
7. Have you been promised additional or “free” medications with your order?You must have an actual prescription issued for each and every item you order whether that prescription is issued electronically or in person by your own doctor. If a web site or individual suggests that they will ship you additional medicines or narcotics as a bonus to your order, don’t do it. Fraudulent sources may try to persuade you to pay an inflated price for one product by promising to include additional pills “on the side”. Again, steer clear of this at all costs.
This page does not dispense medical or professional advice, nor does it prescribe any treatment or strategy that should be tested without the advice of a professional. Information presented here is for educational or entertainment purposes only, published in good faith. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability and accuracy of this information. Any action you take upon the information on our website is strictly at your own risk and we will not be liable for any losses and damages in connection with the use of our website. From our website, you can visit other websites by following hyperlinks to these sites. While we strive to provide only links to useful and ethical websites, we have no control over the content and nature of these sites and the links to other websites do not imply a recommendation for all the content found on these sites. Please be also aware that when you leave our website, other sites may have different privacy policies and terms which are beyond our control.
