FDA Plans Crackdown on Online Drug Sales

Jane Henney, MD, commissioner of the FDA, says that the agency is going to crack down on Internet sales of unapproved new drugs, health fraud (eg, where a site claims some drug will cure cancer), and drugs sold without a valid prescription. Oftentimes, all customers have to do is fill out an online form, which results in their getting a prescription from a physician who is on the payroll of the website. The problem is that such prescriptions are not illegal per se. Although state medical practice laws frown on physicians prescribing a medication without physically examining a patient, the practice is not illegal. Nor do any states have separate Internet prescribing laws. Henney is particularly concerned about sites that offer quack cures for cancer.