FDA says most online drugstores fake

WASHINGTON, Jun 14, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- A survey by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finds that most Web sites offering prescription drugs from Canada are not Canadian owned.

The Washington Post reports that the FDA examined 11,000 sites claiming to provide drugs at Canadian prices. They found that only about 1,000 actually sold prescription drugs and only one-quarter of those sites were registered to individuals or companies in Canada.

Most of the sites sent consumers to about 1,000 online stores, 86 percent of them owned by U.S. residents.

"We want consumers to be aware that when they order online from these sites ... for the most part no one is overseeing that -- not the state boards of pharmacy, not the FDA -- and that they're the ones responsible for taking a look at the quality of these sites and their offerings," said Tom McGinnis, director of pharmacy affairs.