A Press Release You Will Not See

By ACSH Staff — Aug 02, 2004

For Immediate Release WASHINGTON, DC, August 2, 2004 -- Consumers Against Pharmaceutical Profits (CAPP) formerly known as the Committee Against New Drug Innovation (CANDI), calls on officials to end the dangerous practice of buying cheap drugs from foreign Internet pharmacies. States such as Minnesota and Wisconsin are encouraging their citizens to purchase drugs from foreign Internet pharmacies despite the fact that these pills, while less expensive than the ones monitored by the FDA, are sometimes known to be counterfeit.

For Immediate Release

WASHINGTON, DC, August 2, 2004 -- Consumers Against Pharmaceutical Profits (CAPP) formerly known as the Committee Against New Drug Innovation (CANDI), calls on officials to end the dangerous practice of buying cheap drugs from foreign Internet pharmacies. States such as Minnesota and Wisconsin are encouraging their citizens to purchase drugs from foreign Internet pharmacies despite the fact that these pills, while less expensive than the ones monitored by the FDA, are sometimes known to be counterfeit.

The FDA announced last week that Zocor purchased in Mexican border town pharmacies contained none of the active ingredient in the real drug responsible for lowering cholesterol. The FDA warned that patients could face "serious health risks" by taking the counterfeit drug.

"Drug importation is dangerous," said Dr. Cindy Wolverine, MD, Director of CAPP. "We must hold accountable the politicians who are promoting the purchase of drugs over the Internet from Canada and Mexico," howled Wolverine.

CAPP is in no way affiliated with the anti-pharmaceutical Public Citizen Health Research Group...

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Activist groups such as the Public Citizen Health Research Group have a very low tolerance for risk. So we would have thought that they'd make a big deal out of the fact that fake drugs are endangering our citizens -- maybe a press release, like the fictional one above, placed on their site with an appropriate URL such as: http://www.citizen.org/drugimportationisrisky.

Imagine relying on miracle drug Zocor, which has been proven to lower dangerous cholesterol levels. This drug is likely to reduce your risk of heart disease. Yet if you follow the advice of so many state and local officials who encourage their citizens to buy their drugs from non-FDA-approved foreign webpages, you may be getting something no more effective than a sugar pill or candy.

Yet the silence of the activist groups is deafening.

Why?

Jeff Stier is an associate director of the American Council on Science and Health.