ARE THERE INDIVIDUALS or firms in Barbados shipping fake or tainted drugs to North America?
According to America’s respected Wall Street Journal, there is suspicion that Barbados, India and China might be shipping bogus drugs to the United States at the behest of Canadian pharmacies.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which monitors the development and sale of drugs in the United States, is reported to have identified the three nations as contributing to problems of unregulated drugs being sold in America without doctors’ prescriptions.
The Wall Street Journal said that according to the FDA, “many illicit pharmacies appear to be based in Canada but often ship their drugs from places like India, Barbados or China” .
At the heart of the problem are “illegal pharmacies” which may be using the Internet to peddle drugs that have not been approved by the FDA for sale in the United States without a prescription.
The Wall Street Journal said that Google, the Internet search engine, had been warned by state and drug industry watchdogs in the United States that many online drugstores advertising on its network were breaking the law.
At least US$1 billion in advertising is being spent annually by online pharmacies but it is not known how much comes from illicit pharmacies.
