Don’t Get Scammed by Fake Online Pharmacies Selling Ozempic
How can we tell which online pharmacies are trustworthy and which are peddling scams? PharmacyChecker’s own Dr. Ross Phan sat down with Dr. Phil’s Morning on Merit Street to explain how the latest frenzy around Ozempic is a breeding ground for counterfeit activity (and creativity).
Dr. Phan says that Ozempic is a trendy medication right now and “supply isn’t meeting demand” on top of the cost already being prohibitive for most patients. This creates an environment for opportunists to scam not only patients, she says, but unsuspecting wholesalers and other players in the legitimate supply chain. Watch the interview below to learn how to cut through the frenzy to identify a legitimate online pharmacy.
Related: From Ozempic to Wegovy: Ensuring Your Weight Loss Prescription is Authentic
Signs of a Fake Online Pharmacy
Dr. Phan cautions that one telltale sign of a bogus operation is that they do not require a prescription – or they offer to write the patient a prescription right away in order to sell them the drug. Fake pharmacies do not mention any way that they protect your personal financial or medical information. “The medication should be dispensed by a licensed pharmacist,” warns Phan. “If there is no licensed pharmacist available to dispense the medication and provide patient consultations, then those websites [are] likely rogue – likely dangerous.”
The most prevalent scam associated with bogus online pharmacies that do not require a prescription is nondelivery. They take your money, promising to send you a medication that never arrives. Some rogue actors even get creative by requesting an extra payment to purportedly clear customs. Unsuspecting patients are not only out money for the initial medicine order but then shell out $650-$1200 for the fabricated customs hold. Unfortunately, the real danger in ordering from a suspicious website comes if/when your medication order actually arrives. Vendors have been shown to ship unregistered and falsified products, leading to adverse events and other patient safety issues. A prescription requirement is key. Without it, studies have shown drug orders to result in products with clear discrepancies in not only product registration but also dangerous quality issues. Your product could be contaminated or contain more or less of the indicated active ingredient. Receiving more than the recommended dose can result in death. PharmacyChecker recently wrote about how to inspect your weight loss drugs, such as Ozempic and Wegovy, to doublecheck their authenticity.
Peer-reviewed, scientific research demonstrates that online pharmacies, accredited in the PharmacyChecker International Pharmacy Verification Program, require a valid prescription and sell high-quality, lawfully-manufactured medicines. Dr. Phan inspects the dispensing partners behind online pharmacies, ensuring the highest pharmacy safety standards among accredited operations.
Related: The Rise of Ozempic and Wegovy: High Demand Necessitates a Cautious Consumer
Affording Popular Medications By Shopping Online
Patients continue to seek alternatives to access and afford medicines – and the bulk of the research, as you can imagine, happens on the Internet. PharmacyChecker provides information for a consumer to pursue alternatives safely. Dr. Phan travels the world to inspect online pharmacy dispensing partners. “I get to make sure these pharmacies are held accountable.” She ensures that these websites partner with legitimate dispensing pharmacies, licensed in the jurisdictions in which they practice and following the highest standards of pharmacy safety practices. Only these safe websites are accredited by PharmacyChecker's International Pharmacy Verification Program and listed on PharmacyChecker.com.
View List of Accredited Online Pharmacies
Should PharmacyChecker receive a tip from a consumer or encounter a rogue website posing as a legitimate source of affordable medication, the team adds the offending site to PharmacyChecker’s list of rogue websites.
Morning on Merit Street mentions that a lot of our medications sold in U.S. pharmacies are coming from abroad – particularly from China. The fact is that the majority of the U.S. generic drug supply consists of active ingredients sourced from India and China. PharmacyChecker research shows that the majority of brand prescription drugs Americans take are not made in the United States, rather they are made in other high-income countries with equally — if not more — stringent pharmaceutical manufacturing requirements than the United States. These brand-name drugs are often the ones American patients seek out online due to their exorbitant costs at domestic pharmacies. Patients can save up to 90% by ordering from a reputable online pharmacy, accredited through PharmacyChecker’s Verification Program. When ordering a brand product from another country, it is more often than not made by the same drug company. This is due to their sweeping patent protections in the years (sometimes decades) after the initial launch of their branded product. As such, it’s not uncommon that an American ordering a branded product, such as Eliquis, from Canada or the UK is getting the same Eliquis they would get at their Walgreens down the street for a tenth of the price.
In the United States, technically, it is prohibited to import unapproved medication, whether through purchase over the Internet or while on a trip to a foreign country. However, it is important to know that people in the U.S. are not prosecuted for doing so, as long as the medication imported is for their own use and not for resale.
Learn more using our Consumer Safety Guide to Online Pharmacies
