How Big Pharma Censors the Internet

Americans pay by far the highest prices in the world for most prescription drugs, and of course big pharma would like to keep it that way. Key measures that the industry relies upon in this regard are the Prescription Drug Marketing Act [PDF] and Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act [PDF], which make it unlawful for most Americans to access lower-priced drugs from overseas, coupled with the powers of U. S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to seize such drugs at the border on their own initiative.
In practice however, discretionary guidelines developed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and enforced by the CBP allow American consumers to import a 90-day supply of some prescription medications for personal use, including by bringing them across border checkpoints in personal luggage, or by mailing them from overseas. In the latter case, a large market exists for pharmacies registered in other countries such as Canada, Australia and Turkey, that will accept online orders and mail genuine pharmaceuticals to American consumers at cheaper than local prices.
Big pharma doesn’t like this [PDF], but since the importation is already technically against federal law, they can’t do much more about it. At least, not through legal channels…and that’s where they get creative. As we describedlast week, where industry can’t get government to regulate the Internet in the way they want, they frequently turn to private deals with Internet intermediaries that we’ve termed Shadow Regulation.

This post was published at Wolf Street By Jeremy Malcolm, Electronic Frontier Foundation ‘ October 6, 2016.