We’ve all seen those pop-up ads peddling discount prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies. Ohhhh! Cheap Xanax! They always seem a little dubious. As of this week, you’re probably going to see fewer of them.
In partnership with international regulatory and law enforcement agencies, the US Federal Drug Administration has shut down 1677 illegal online pharmacies and seized a whopping $US41 million worth of illegal drugs.
A lot of these websites looked legal from the outside — many claimed to be Canadian pharmacies offering “brand name” or “FDA-approved” drugs. They would show fake licences and certifications so buyers would think they were OK, when many of these sites were pushing fakes in reality. Seized sites have been marked very clearly with a banner identifying them as illegal, like the one seen above. Any doubts you ever had that a URL like c-v-s-pharmacy dot com was legit can be put to rest. [FDA]