After more than a year of growing problems, President Clinton hopes to crack down on Web sites that peddle medicine.
As part of his 2001 budget request to Congress, Clinton proposed that the Food and Drug Administration verify the quality of the hundreds of recently formed companies that allow customers to fill prescriptions over the Internet. The proposal is designed to stop illegal sales of prescription drugs over the Internet (notably Viagra, the male potency drug).
If approved, Clinton’s plan would call for fines up to $500,000 for Web sites that sell drugs without first obtaining a valid prescription from the online buyer, and would expand the FDA’s power to investigate Web sites. Internet pharmacies are now regulated on the state level.
Clinton’s proposal should come as welcome news to the handful of state pharmacy regulators and doctors groups who have been complaining about these Web sites for at least the past year and a half (DIRECT, Nov. 15).
Kansas spearheaded state efforts against doctors filling prescriptions online who lacked proper state licenses and/or sufficient familiarity the medical conditions for which they’d be prescribing medicines. The state of Illinois followed suit. In addition, Rep. Ron Klink (D-PA) introduced a bill seeking to require U.S.-based pharmaceutical Web sites to prominently display their addresses and phone numbers and to name the doctors responsible for online consultations and their areas of specialization. Clinton’s proposal goes further.
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