Illegal Drug Websites

I know a lot of guys buy their ED meds online, so it's important to know that you're dealing with legitimate online companies. The FDA just issued warnings to 9,600 websites selling unapproved drugs online and closed-down 1,677 sites. The danger is that most of the counterfeit drugs (most being ED meds) are not manufactured under well controlled processes and the drugs can contain too much, too little, no active ingredients, or even contain toxic materials. Some of the sites claimed to be Canadian pharmacies, but were not. Here's a link to the FDA site with info about counterfeit drugs and how to find a safe online provider - www.fda.gov/BeSafeRx

Here are some links to articles about the FDA's operation to shut down the counterfeiters.

BloombergBusinessWeek - http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2013-06-27/online-pharmacy-crackdown-shutters-1-677-websites

CNN - http://wtvr.com/2013/06/27/fda-shuts-down-1677-online-pharmacies/

CBS News - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57591413/fda-shuts-down-over-1600-online-pharmacies/

Fox Business - http://www.foxbusiness.com/government/2013/06/27/fda-cracks-down-on-illegal-online-pharmacies/

I am wondering when they are going to go after them like they went after alcohol during prohibition. After all they are losing out on the Obamacare tax on prescriptions. I wouldn't be surprised if NSA monitoring isn't involved.

Post Edited (Desertrat1) : 6/28/2013 10:25:54 AM (GMT-6)

Gents: I can't help but wonder how much of this is driven by US pharma companies. I am one of those unfortaunte guys who really needed Cialis after daVinci surgery. At $20 per pill here in the USA, there was no way that I could afford that. I did some research and found that I could get 20 mg. tablets, blister pack sealed, laser engraved, with expiration dates from a major and well known overseas pharmaceutical manufacturer for under $1.00 each. I had several USA manufactured samples that my surgeon gave me so I tried a simple experiment (being an engineer) ....Only my wife knew what pills were genuine USA made and what were the one ordered from India. And she dispensed them to me (without me knowing which type I was receiving). Viagra doesn't work for me so she even snuck in a few of made in USA Viagras and those results had been also recorded. At the end of the "test" (20 experiments), we both easily found that the results were exactly the same for both types of Cialis. And as expected the Viagra had no effect. So you couldn't say that there was a placebo effect going on.

This is just my observation and perhaps I got lucking in finding the correct website. But I look at it this way. We are probably dealing with say 3 to 5 cents worth of chemical here to produce a genuine tablet. How many overseas companies are capable of owning all of the high-tech machinery and packaging equipment to professionally form and package the tablets, but are unable to acquire or make the actual ingedients? And then to carry this further, why put something toxic in there to boot? Does'nt make sense to me. But this is just again my opinion.

Fortunately for me my ED has improved after almost 2 years where I don't actually need these tablets. But they do indeed still help. I bite of about a 1/3 of a 20 mg. tablet and that costs about 33 cents. That brings me to pre-surgery erections levels.

But I feel very sorry for scared fellows coming out of surgery who get futher frightened and depressed when they take their doctor's prescription to the pharmacy and find that a bottle of 50 Cialis costs nearly a grand! That is exactly what happened to me nearly 2 years ago!

Bill K. from NJ
PSA 3.3, free PSA 21%, Biopsy May 2011-1/12 cores +, 30% of one core PCA, Gleason 3+7.
Davinci July 2013- Prostate 67 grams, Downgraded to Gleason 3+3, 10% involvment, contained.
Immediate urinary control. 100% ED. Used VED, Bimix. Now at 23+ months, ED is 90-95% resolved.
All PSA's since: <0.015.

Pharma certainly has an interest in getting counterfeit drugs off the market, including loss of profit due to people buying from these other sources and possible loss of reputation if there are issues with the counterfeit drugs and people think it's the real drug. But there have been a number of studies by FDA and European regulatory agencies that have found a lot of issues with the counterfeit drugs such as the ones I mentioned in the original post. Even if the counterfeiters don't have malicious intent, drug manufacturing is a complex process that even the legitimate manufacturers can, and often do, have problems with. Foreign substances that aren't supposed to be in the product can easily be introduced when their manufacturing process isn't well controlled and there have been plenty of cases in overseas plants where that's been the case. In fact, Ranbaxy (a legitimate generics manufacturer in India) just had a $500 million fine for bad manufacturing processes and submitting fraudulent data.

Bottom line, forwarned is forearmed.

Z06dude

Can you share the website in India you used? Second question, I'm in Michigan and visit Windsor ON, at least once a month, would the cialis be that much cheaper in Canada, I know it is for lots of other scripts

Thx Rich

ZO6dude great post. I agree with you 100%. I thought I had good insurance until I was denied ED meds after my robotic surgery. My surgeon recommended a Canadian mail order pharmacy. I have been very pleased with the product and price. It's amazing how my view of only purchasing drugs from my local pharmacy changed when it hit me in the pocket book. What an eye opening racket!

Yeah I can see wanting to get drugs cheap but shopping from places not being regulated by the FDA would be asking for trouble in terms of "What is really in this pill?" and I get the image of less than well meaning fellows in a basement cooking things up in bathtubs ala "Breaking Bad" or something.

I used a Canadian online pharmacy for 5 shipments of both Viagra and Levitra and found them to work just as well as the real stuff....(could only get 6 pills a month with insurance). No doubt the pharma companies have a huge stake in shutting this down....no doubt in my mind.

They say the drug itself is cheap to make but you pay for all the experimenting, testing and developmental costs of the drug that cost billions before its FDA approved.......wouldn't be surprised if an actualy Viagra pill cost 2-3 bucks to make in reality.

Casper, I suspect that in the quantity that Viagra is produced, I doubt there's 1.00 USD per pill, if that much.

Since for PC guys, these meds are a legitimate therapeutic need, not a recreational pill, never understood why the insurance firms don't see it that way.

david

No doubt hawk.....that toxic material thing is probably nothing more than to scare people away from a much much cheaper option......anyone who thinks its not about money is fooling themselves. There may very well be some cases of bad stuff being sold.....but Ive never heard about anyone poisoned yet...or even a single death case.

Just a reminder. Buying drugs through offshore websites, or that violate US patents or trademarks, is not legal.

See rule 1 -
No discussion of any illegal activity

 

Hey Bill K from NJ (ZO6Dude)....That sounds like the kind of scientific study I want to be a part of..."And the judge says"...9.5....

As far as the foreign pharmaceuticals, my opinion is that many of them are safe.  Half my regular prescriptions are generics from Ranbaxy in India...  The US Pharma is just trying to throw a scare to protect their criminal profits.

OK now I will crawl back into my cave....

I have made purchases from off-shore for many years, I have an order pending at this time, and I will continue to purchase in the future.  Its my choice and care less what anyone thinks.  There are more important things in my life to worry about than where and how I spend my money.