A coroner in British Columbia, Canada has determined that a 57-year-old U.S. resident living in the Vancouver Island area died from prescription medications she purchased over the Internet. The full news report is available here. The woman, Marcia Bergeron, passed away around Christmas, however the coroner has only recently completed the investigation determining that the Internet pharmacy was the agent of her death.
Bergeron bought sedatives and anti-anxiety medication from an Internet pharmacy that advertised itself as being in Canada. It is exactly these Canadian Internet pharmacies that groups like AARP are trying to enable access to for U.S. Senior Citizens. The pills that Ms. Bergeron purchased had traces of toxic minerals including arsenic, lead and even uranium (yes, uranium). Pharma Marketletter is reporting that the pills were believed to be counterfeits of Pfizer’s Xanax and sanofi-aventis’ Ambien.
It is only a matter of time before senior citizens in the U.S., even AARP members, start dying because of counterfeit medications sold by Internet pharmacies.
Ironically, I received an e-mail last Thursday in response to my previous posting which claimed that I wildly overstate the risk of importation and Canadian Internet pharmacies. The individual claimed in their note, “No single person has ever died from buying drugs from Canada. This is just a scare tactic from those drug companies.” Well dear reader, Marcia Bergeron would disagree with you.
4 comments:
"It is only a matter of time before senior citizens in the U.S., even AARP members, start dying because of counterfeit medications sold by Internet pharmacies."
Maybe but there has been no link between counterfeit drugs and Canadian pharmaceuticals. Canadian pharmaceuticals should not be condemned because of counterfeit drugs from other countries. To do so is not an objective evaluation of the facts; to do so supports the US pharmaceutical company's fight to prevent Canadian drug imports to the US. Actually, most "Canadian drug" imports are US made drugs sold to Canada and re-shipped to the US.
The blog owner filter's the inputs, so alternate views may not be posted.
I agree with you. Canadian drugs are as safe as U.S. drugs. Or, let me be a bit more clear. Drugs purchased at legitimate pharmacies in Canada are as safe as purchasing drugs at legimiate pharmacies in the U.S.
This is why I put "Canada" in quotes in my messages on this topic.
The problem is that Internet Pharmacies (including the majority that advertise they are in Canada) do not control the distribution channel and you have no idea where they come from. Canada? Maybe. Greece, Russia, Cuba, etc.? Likely.
The link is not between counterfeit drugs and Canadian pharmaceuticals. The link is between counterfeit drugs and pharmacies that Americans think are in Canada.
Many (I won't go so far as to say most) drugs in Canadian pharmacies come from the U.S. (and other legit sources in Europe, etc.). However, most drug in "Canadian" Internet pharmacies is a different story. Time and again, we see investigations (the FDA, Business Week Magazine, etc.) look at this, buy drugs from "Canadian Internet pharmacies" only to receive drugs with improper amounts of active ingredients or no active ingredients that originated in a third-world country named in the recent U.N. report on counterfeiting.
This has been my whole point in these postings--the legislative agenda of AARP (wanting to expand Internet Pharmacy access) will put seniors at risk. So to believe that drugs coming to U.S. from "Canadian" Internet pharmacies are drugs that originated in the U.S. is niave at best and dangerous at worst.
If a senior or AARP member wants to walk across the border and buy drugs at a pharmacy, the risk of counterfeit drugs is small.
Is that clearer?
As for filtering inputs, it has become necessary due to racist comments posted recently.
My comment policy has been posted before--
My comment policy is this—I believe in the intellectual exchange of ideas and am willing to post all thoughtful comments to my blog, including contrarian views.
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