State-sanctioned drug importation websites demonstrate problems regulating quality, safety and patient privacy standards of foreign pharmacies.

During the past year a handful of states including Minnesota, Wisconsin and New Hampshire have sanctioned websites to facilitate the importation of prescription drugs for their residents. In order to assure the safety and quality of foreign drug supplies, some states have imposed certain conditions on selected internet drug sellers.

For instance, Wisconsin entered into contracts with three Canadian pharmacies requiring that participating pharmacies would (a) sell only prescription medications “listed” on the website; (b) not provide medications for which there is no equivalent approved for sale in the US; (c) not provide generic medications for which there is no equivalent approved for sale in the US, and (d) not provide medications which require refrigeration or any medications that cannot be safely shipped via mail order. The Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin conducted a review of prescriptions filled by the participating pharmacies in March 2004 and found that 42 % of the prescriptions were in violation of this Agreement.

Patients using state sanctioned websites have recently had their rights to privacy violated after patient records of a foreign pharmacy sanctioned by Minnesota, Wisconsin and New Hampshire were offered for sale to mail-order suppliers in Florida and elsewhere. According to a statement on Minnesota’s Rx Connect Website, foreign pharmacies are allowed to self-regulate themselves on issues of patient confidentiality: “Each of the pharmacies participating in this site has its own privacy policy. These policies were one of many factors that the Minnesota screening team considered as part of its evaluation of different pharmacies”.

In contrast to FDA and other U.S. drug regulatory standards that assure the safety and quality and manner of prescribing prescription drugs, Minnesota, Wisconsin and New Hampshire importation websites disclaim any and all responsibility for liability of drug products purchased through these websites.