Online Pharmacy Accessibility of Imatinib, An Oral Chemotherapy Medication

Abstract

Background: Since prices of imatinib (Gleevec) remain high, patients on oral chemotherapy are looking for alternative methods to access this life-saving medication. We assessed the accessibility of imatinib through online pharmacies and analyzed each website for medication safety, price, and marketing tactics. Methods: We searched the term “buy imatinib online” using 4 commonly used internet search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and DuckDuckGo) and screened web pages displayed in the first 10 pages. Websites were included if they were published in English, sold imatinib, were free to access, and offered shipping in the United States. Websites were classified using LegitScript’s categorization as “certified,” “unclassified,” “unapproved,” or “rogue.” We analyzed information on websites’ patient safety characteristics, marketing techniques, pricing, domain registration information, and IP addresses. Results: Of the 44 online pharmacies identified, only 3 (7%) were certified, and the remainder were classified as rogue (52%; n=23), unapproved (30%; n=13), or unclassified (11%; n=5). Thirteen online pharmacies (30%; 9 rogue, 4 unclassified) sold imatinib without a prescription. Nearly one-quarter (n=10) of online pharmacies selling imatinib did not include drug-related warnings on their websites, and nearly half (n=21) did not limit the purchasable quantity. More than three-quarters (n=34) of online pharmacies selling imatinib did not offer pharmacist consultations, even though nearly all websites extended offers to speak with sales associates (91%; n=40). Most online pharmacies selling imatinib claimed price discounts (95%; n=42), but fewer provided bulk discounts (23%; n=10) or coupons (34%; n=15). One-third of rogue pharmacies selling imatinib (n=7) claimed to be registered or accredited on their websites. Conclusions: The lack of safety measures taken by illegitimate online pharmacies endangers patient safety because they allow patients to purchase imatinib without appropriate evaluation for response, drug interactions, and adverse effects. Healthcare providers need to be aware of this practice and should assure patient access to imatinib through safe and legitimate pharmacies.

The characteristics and operations of “online pharmacies” investigated in relation to medicines popularised during the coronavirus pandemic: a cross-sectional study

“…Our study reveals a concerning reality that a diverse range of POMs is readily available online without the need for a prescription. This is consistent with the findings of previous studies ( Fittler et al, 2013 ; Boyd et al, 2017 ; Fittler et al, 2021 ; Ozawa et al, 2022 ; Penley et al, 2022 ; Sun et al, 2022 ) underscoring the pervasive availability of POMs without proper oversight. This finding serves as a red flag for those interested in ensuring safe medication practices and highlights an unsettling loophole for access to medications.…”

Illicit Online Pharmacies: A Scoping Review

“…Figure 2 shows the number of studies investigating issues related to each theme. The most common theme was IOPs' impact on patient health and safety in twenty-two studies [8,13,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. Sixteen studies focused on marketing and advertising issues with IOPs [6,8,16,25,[36][37][38][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52].…”

“…The most common theme was IOPs' impact on patient health and safety in twenty-two studies [8,13,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. Sixteen studies focused on marketing and advertising issues with IOPs [6,8,16,25,[36][37][38][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52]. IOPs' impact on public health was investigated in fifteen studies [5,12,16,31,32,41,43,44,46,48,51,[53][54][55]…”

“…Twelve studies focused on regulations and legal enforcement issues with IOPs [5,8,13,26,28,45,50,53,[56][57][58][59]. Other themes included patient/consumer behavior toward IOPs [33,34,40,49,59], supply chain issues with IOPs [35,42,55,60], healthcare provider issues with IOPs [27,43,54,60], societal issues with IOPs [36,52], public policy issues with IOPs [25,30] and economic costs to patients [29,38].…”