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The same cannot be said for the online merchants caught in
the latest bust - this one of a swindle, not a bubble. Late last month,
federal drug investigators shut down 4,600 illegal Internet pharmacy sites
and arrested 18 people who ran them from locations across the United States.
The authorities stopped short of claiming that the crackdown dismantled the
illegal online market for Viagra, Propecia, Oxycodone and other black-market
medications, but they said it could scare off some sellers who had operated
with impunity for years. Law-abiding online pharmacies like Drugstore.com,
KwikMed.com and others hope so, because driving out the bad eggs could mean
more sales for them.
"The rogue pharmacies siphon off
sales from legitimate consumers who happen to have a prescription," said
Greg French, a spokesman for Drugstore.com. "But the more significant issue
is the impact they have on the reputation of legitimate players." |
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Some consumers are avoiding
Drugstore.com and other bona fide providers, Mr. French said, because they
are unsure which sites are legitimate. With a little bit of graphic design
flair and some HTML artistry, it is easy enough for unlicensed drug sellers
to pass themselves off as being aboveboard.
To discerning viewers, though, the fraudulent sites are easy to spot. Many
of the shuttered online stores purported to offer prescriptions by
legitimate doctors, following "safe and secure" online diagnoses. These
typically took the form of a short questionnaire - with the right answers
already checked off - asking about the patient's symptoms and general
health.
The form would then supposedly be sent to the site's licensed physician, who
would write a prescription and forward it to a licensed pharmacist. In
reality, many of the Web sites would either fill the orders themselves or
send them to an illegal wholesaler for a commission.
The profits could be huge. Garrison Courtney, a spokesman for the United
States Drug Enforcement Administration, which led the recent investigation,
said customers typically paid $400 for drugs that would have cost $40 with a
legal prescription.
What that means is that the customers who patronized these sites could not
or would not get the prescriptions from their own doctors. That being the
case, legitimate sites may not see much of a sales bump from the demise of
so many black-market pharmacies, according to Lynne Bishop, a health
industry analyst with Forrester Research, an online consulting firm. "These
are two very different markets," Ms. Bishop said. People who buy
prescription drugs from lawful sites, she said, tend to be "in touch with
costs, quality, researching medications and medical conditions, and they'll
bring these types of issues to their doctor."
Not only are online prescription-drug customers rare; they seem to be
growing rarer. So far this year, about 8 percent of America's 150 million
prescription-drug users have bought their medications online, down from 8.6
percent last year.
Ms. Bishop said online prescriptions might well be headed for an uptick, but
it would not be because of drug busts. Rather, she said, the supply of
illegal prescription drugs is shrinking as drug manufacturers crack down on
unscrupulous distributors and step up efforts to authenticate drugs. At the
same time, insurers are encouraging and sometimes even requiring customers
to fill their prescriptions on the Internet as a way to cut costs. Some
legitimate online pharmacists say the government's pursuit of Internet
outlaws is already helping the bottom line.
"Our business is increasing with the crackdown on these sites," said Peter
Ax, the chief executive of KwikMed, a privately held Scottsdale, Ariz.,
pharmacy that sells drugs for erectile dysfunction and baldness. "People are
seeking out the legitimate providers."
KwikMed appeals to those who are too embarrassed to see a doctor or to pick
up prescriptions at the drugstore counter. KwikMed.com features a
questionnaire devised by a real physician, requiring customers to answer
anywhere from 20 and 200 questions.
If KwikMed's doctors determine that a patient needs a prescription, they
issue one and an outside pharmacist ships the medicine. (Adult signatures
are required at the time of delivery, to verify the patient's identity and
age.) If the doctors conclude that a prescription is not warranted, the site
records data like the applicant's address, which can help KwikMed thwart
further efforts by the same person to get pills.
KwikMed, which Mr. Ax said was a rogue pharmacy until he bought it for an
undisclosed price in 2001, claims it is unique in its ability to issue
online prescriptions without a physical examination. That distinction comes
courtesy of the State of Utah, which in 2003 issued the company a license to
operate after reviewing KwikMed's diagnostic software and medical
procedures.
The site's prices are higher than traditional pharmacies charge. A 20-pill
bottle of Viagra, for instance, costs roughly $300, compared with about $220
in a drugstore. Patients pay nothing for the online exam.
Mr. Ax, who was once head of the Lehman Brothers' private equity division,
said his company might eventually expand its roster of drugs, but not
anytime soon. "We'll only do it if we can operate under lawful guidelines
with regulators working with us," he said. "But we think we have a vision
for what the nontraditional delivery of medicine can be.
"And if we do things right, the bad guys who are less than ethical will go
away, and our business will increase." |
