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  NEW SURVEY OF CANADIAN ONLINE PHARMACIES FINDS ONLY 30% ARE LICENSED AND PROVIDE IMPORTANT CONSUMER PROTECTIONS ACCORDING TO PHARMACYCHECKER.COM

Ratings Available From PharmacyChecker.com
  WHITE PLAINS, NY — November 6, 2003 — PharmacyChecker.com, an independent firm that evaluates online pharmacies and compares their prices, reported today that only 30% of Canadian online pharmacies recently surveyed are licensed bricks-and-mortar pharmacies and provide important consumer protections such as transaction security, privacy of information, and reliable contact information. While Canada's system for ensuring drug safety is on a par with the United States, the millions of Americans shopping for drugs online don't always know if the drugs are coming from a regulated Canadian pharmacy.

Taking a consumer approach for its survey, PharmacyChecker.com conducted a Google® search for the term "Canadian pharmacy." It then evaluated and rated the first 20 websites listed in the search that sell medicine from Canada and found that:

  • Only 30% of the pharmacies qualified for PharmacyChecker.com's highest rating — 5 checks. These sites were the online extensions of licensed, bricks-and-mortar pharmacies. They provided adequate security and privacy of a customer's personal and financial information, and reliable contact information.
  • 20% received the next highest rating — 4 checks. While not actual pharmacies, these companies filled orders through licensed pharmacies and met PharmacyChecker.com's other qualifications.
  • For 30% of the sites, no pharmacy affiliation could be verified.
  • The remaining 20% of sites dispensed through licensed pharmacies but lacked either adequate financial security privacy, and/or contact information.


"Most companies calling themselves 'Canadian pharmacies' are not real pharmacies," said Tod Cooperman, M.D., President of PharmacyChecker.com. "If you want to order drugs from Canada, be sure that your medications are dispensed by licensed pharmacists in a safe a secure manner." In evaluating the websites, PharmacyChecker.com checked with Canadian Boards of Pharmacy to verify licenses, evaluated each website's online transaction security and privacy policy, and contacted bricks-and-mortar pharmacies to verify affiliations. Each site was also asked to complete a detailed questionnaire so that a detailed profile could be created.

Ratings and Profiles for 34 online pharmacies are now available on www.pharmacychecker.com. Twenty-seven of these companies are Canadian (including the 20 recently surveyed), 5 are U.S. and 2 are Mexican. A 40-item profile of each pharmacy site is also provided and price comparisons for over 1,500 medications are also available for many pharmacies. Online subscription is required for access to the complete information.

PharmacyChecker.com is privately held and based in White Plains, New York. It has no ownership in or from companies that sell or distribute pharmacy products. Individual subscriptions to PharmacyChecker.com are available online. For specialized reports or group/institutional subscriptions, contact Gabriel Levitt, Director of Research at gabriel.levitt@pharmacychecker.com or 718-387-4526.