Last week, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) named 79 online pharmacies that are not safe for patients. Rather than a general “watch out” message, the NABP actually listed the web addresses for these rogue sources.

Kudos to for naming names! I hope the NABP has a good firewall to repel the disgruntled spammers.

According to NABP, a site got on the bad guy list for one of the following three illegal activities:

• Does not require a valid prescription (71 sites)
• Foreign or non-FDA-approved drugs (35 sites)
• A physical address outside of the US (36 sites)

NABP has accredited 15 legitimate online pharmacies though the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites™ (VIPPS^®) program. In contrast, the 79 non-recommended sites are non-accredited through the Fake Online Outlets League™ (FOOL^®) program. (NABP doesn’t seem to allow direct links. Go to NABP and click “Internet Pharmacies” to find the list.)

Fans of buying “Canadian” drugs should take note: Twenty-two of the sites on the NABP list have “Canada” in the company name.  You have been warned.