Google toughens up on online pharmacies

Google has made it harder for those peddling counterfeit medicines to advertise their wares via its paid-for search platform Adwords.

The search engine giant has revised its advertising model so that it will only accept ads from online pharmacies in the USA that have accreditation under the National Association Boards of Pharmacy's Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) scheme.

Canadian pharmacies selling into the USA will have to be accredited under the Canadian International Pharmacy Association (CIPA) programme, while similar schemes have been rolled out across other world markets.

For example, in the UK pharmacy online ads will only be carried by pharmacies accredited with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB).

The changes, which are due to go into effect at the end of this month, will also allow online pharmacies advertising via Adwords to target ads only to users in the country in which they are accredited.

"Accordingly, we'll no longer be using any third party verifier of online pharmacies other than VIPPS and CIPA," said Google in its Adwords blog. Previously Google had also accepted other US accreditation schemes such as PharmacyChecker.com.

The measures tackles the issue of the sponsored links which generate a revenue stream for Google when an Internet user clicks on them, but will of course not have a major impact on 'organic' search results - the main body of search results over which search engine operators have little control.

Both Google and other search engine providers such as Microsoft's Bing have come under fire in recent months for not doing enough to block pharmacies which illegally offer to sell medicines to consumers without a prescription.

"For too long, rogue websites posing as legitimate pharmacies have continued, unabated, to peddle substandard, tainted, and counterfeit drugs to unwitting patients," according to NABP President Gary Schnabel.

"Google's policy change is a major step toward ridding the Internet of these operations, and we applaud Google's commitment to patient safety."

Tom Kubic, president of the Pharmaceutical Security Institute, said he encouraged other major search engine providers to follow Google's lead.

"Clever criminals will quickly adapt to these changes and move to other search engines to peddle their unsafe medicines," he said.

"Only by adopting uniform strict standards on paid advertising can we really protect unsuspecting patients."

US consumer advocacy group the Partnership for Safe Medicines welcomed Google's move, but said it also wants additional measures put in place, such as legislation to prohibit financial transactions for drug sales of unlicensed online pharmacies and the creation of substantive criminal penalties for any party, including Web sites and search engines, which engage in the trade in counterfeit medicines.


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