Alexis Pellek

How bad is the problem of illegal online pharmacies? One in six Americans has purchased a prescription drug online without a valid prescription, according to research presented by The Partnership at 

 during the White House Forum on Intellectual Property (IP) Theft in December 2010. That means 36 million Americans were at risk for buying counterfeit and substandard drugs from rogue pharmacy websites.

Speaking at the forum, US Attorney General Eric Holder noted examples of ways the Department of Justice is working to protect consumer health and safety, including the prosecution of counterfeit traffickers, the seizure of more than 80 websites selling counterfeit goods, and the use of new technologies and public-education campaigns. He called for more cooperation between government agencies, foreign regulators, and industry, saying, "The Internet remains a haven for illegal pharmacies and other operations that pose a danger to the American people, and we need a concerted, collaborative effort to put these illegal operations out of business." 

A voluntary partnership made up of Google, Microsoft, and several other companies will target illegal online pharmacies and work to stop the sale of fake drugs. Along with American Express, eNom, GoDaddy, MasterCard, Neustar, Network Solutions, PayPal, Visa and Yahoo!, the companies agreed to form a nonprofit organization focused on fighting the spread of counterfeit drugs on the Internet by eradicating rogue pharmacies.  

For a related story, see this month's Viewpoint column on illegal drug reimportation on p. 98.  

Articles

Government and private sector efforts take on counterfeit drugs online.

Rogue Pharmacies

The total of $167 billion for global pharmaceutical takeovers in 2008 is a record high, according to a 

 report. The most dramatic acquisition attempt was for ImClone Systems (New York), which began with Bristol-Myers Squibb's (BMS, New York) unsolicited offers of $60, then $62 per share for the 83% of the company it did not own. BMS was rejected twice, with ImClone Chairman Carl C. Icahn calling the second offer "absurd," claiming another company had offered $70 per share. Icahn wasn't bluffing, and in October, revealed Eli Lilly's (Indianapolis) offer of $6.5 billion, or $70 per share. 

Roche (Basel) picked up Ventana Medical Systems (Tucson, AZ) in January for approximately $3.4 billion. Roche attempted to buy Genentech (South San Francisco, CA), which rejected the initial offer of $89 per share, or $43.7 billion, in August. Many analysts believe a takeover is inevitable, however, with Roche to offer as much as $100 per share. 

Among the other deals this year are Takeda's (Osaka, Japan) $8.9-billion takeover of Millennium Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA). Fresenius (Bad Homburg, Germany) acquired APP Pharmaceuticals (Schaumburg, IL) for $3.7 billion. Sanofi-Aventis (Paris) won over Zentiva's (Prague) board of directors in September with a $2.6-billion bid after its offer of $2.4 billion was rejected. Daiichi Sankyo (Tokyo) purchased a 63.9% stake in Ranbaxy Laboratories (Gurgaon, Haryana, India) for $4.1 billion. Teva's (Jerusalem) $7.5-billion acquisition of Barr (Montvale, NJ) is expected to close by year's end. Expect big acquisitions to continue as companies look for ways to compete with generics while increasing their market share. 

The past year saw major acquisitions attempted, completed, rejected, and stalled.