Discount Drugs Online
We'll show you how to separate the good Internet pharmacies from the bad and which have the best deals on prescription meds.
By Cameron Huddleston, Contributing Editor, Kiplinger.com
June 1, 2004
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If you have an e-mail account you have probably gotten your share of spam offering free or deeply discounted drugs. Many online pharmacies can provide savings on expensive medications, they also offer a convenient way to fill prescriptions. But as you may suspect from the too-good-to-be-true e-mail solicitations, not all drug-dispensing Web sites are safe -- or legal.
In fact, there are more illegal than legal online operations, says Carmen Catizone, executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. The precise number of these rogue sites is difficult to pinpoint, though, because they open and close on a daily basis. NABP estimates there are about 500 sites dispensing drugs illegally, Catizone says. But, he says, some estimates reach as high as 1,500 illegal sites.
Americans get between 8 million and 10 million prescriptions filled in Canada. Even state governments and organizations such as the Medicare Rights Center refer people to online pharmacies that operate across the border. But ordering drugs from Canadian pharmacy Web sites is illegal and not always safe.
Even though Americans often go unpunished for buying prescription drugs from Canada or elsewhere, they run the risk of receiving contaminated, counterfeit or incorrect prescriptions. They also could receive the wrong dose or no product at all. Consumers also put themselves at the same risk when they buy drugs from illegitimate sites operating in the United States.
Finding legitimate sites
Regulation of online pharmacies in America falls under the jurisdiction of state boards of pharmacy with some federal oversight. However, the NABP created its Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites program in 1999 in response to consumer complaints about illegal Internet pharmacies. The VIPPS seal identifies online pharmacies that are licensed, have met NABP's criteria and passed an onsite inspection.
A VIPPS seal can provide a consumer with peace of mind. But the VIPPS program is voluntary and not all online pharmacies have applied. Of the licensed online pharmacies and pharmacy benefit companies, only 14 carry the VIPPS seal. These are mostly large, national chains, Catizone says.
If a site doesn't have a VIPPS seal, look for other signs that it is operating legitimately. Look for sites that:
- Operate as a licensed pharmacy. Be sure the site tells you in which states it is licensed. If the site is unfamiliar, double-check its standing with the state's board of pharmacy.
- Provide access to a licensed pharmacist who can answer questions -- usually a phone number or e-mail address on the site.
- Are based in the U.S.
- Require and verify prescriptions before dispensing medication.
- Provide a street address and toll-free telephone number.
- Have easy-to-find and understand privacy and security policies.
Don't buy from sites that:
- Sell prescription drugs without a prescription.
- Offer to prescribe medicine without an exam by your doctor.
- Offer online consultations.
- Sell medicine not approved by the FDA.
- Require you to sign a waiver that frees the site of any responsibility for the safety and legitimacy of the drugs.
- Don't post customer service policies.
- Don't guarantee privacy or security .
- Sell narcotics.
Finding the best price
Now that you know how to verify if a site is safe, how do find the one that also offers the best deals on prescription drugs? If you don't want to spend hours checking drug prices on the multitude of sites, try one-stop DestinationRx, an online comparison shopping site. It lets you search for the lowest prescription drug prices at U.S.-licensed pharmacies. The privately held company is not a pharmacy itself, nor is it affiliated with any pharmaceutical companies or pharmacies. So it doesn't steer consumers toward any particular Internet pharmacy. It also can not guarantee the safety of drugs, because it does not dispense them.
Created in 1999, DestinationRx was the first site created to let consumers compare drug prices online. It now has 550,000 members (membership is free) and offers its own discount drug cards, which are mostly used by the working uninsured, Executive Vice President Jim Yocum says.
DestinationRx opted not to participate in the medicare discount drug card program because it was hired by the government to create Medicare.gov's drug price comparison tool.
To help us zero in on the lowest priced online pharmacies, we used DestinationRx.com's price-comparison tool to search for three commonly prescribed drugs, we also did some comparison shopping of our own at six licensed online pharmacies.
Like DestinationRx, we found that drugstore.com had cut-rate prices on the three drugs we used in our search. However, we unearthed a site from our own search with even lower costs: Familymeds.com. Taking shipping costs into consideration, Familymeds.com had the lowest prices for all three drugs, with drugstore.com coming in a close second because of its higher shipping costs.
For example, 90 capsules of the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor (10 mg) retails for $247.99. The same dose and quantity can be purchased at Familymeds.com for $183.87, with free shipping. Drugstore.com beat Familymeds.com's price on Plavix, which is used to prevent heart attacks and strokes, by 10 cents, but its $1.49 shipping charge wipes out the small savings. Familymeds.com also had the lowest price per capsule on the heartburn medication Prevacid.
All of the Internet pharmacies in the table below are licensed and, with the exception of Costco.com and Homemed.com, carry the VIPPS seal. Prices are per capsule because the quantities that can be ordered vary from site to site. For example, Walgreens.com only provides price quotes for 35 capsules, whereas most of the other sites provide prices for quantities of 30, 60, 90 or 100.
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Still wary of the Web?
For those hesitant to buy drugs online, they still might find savings by using the Web to track down the best prices at brick-and-mortar pharmacies. Some state governments provide residents with tools on their Web sites to compare drug prices at various pharmacies across the state. The Maryland attorney general's Web site, for example, has a prescription drug price finder that provides prices for the 25 most commonly used drugs in the state.
If you're enrolled in medicare and plan on signing up for a drug discount card, you can compare savings offered by the various programs in your community with medicare's new savings card comparison tool. The tool allows you to search for pharmacies in up to a 27-mile radius of your zip code that offer discount cards. It sorts by prescription drug price and annual enrollment fee for the pharmacy's discount card.