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Since its inception in 1999 by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP), the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) accreditation program has become the most trusted and respected means for the public to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate online drug sellers.

The VIPPS program and its seal of approval assure the public that VIPPS retailers are legitimate online pharmacies appropriately licensed in each state to which they ship pharmaceuticals. Additionally, VIPPS retailers have successfully completed a rigorous 19-point criteria review and on-site survey. It is the only verification program supported by the Food and Drug Administration and Drug Enforcement Administration.

The VIPPS program is unique in that no other accreditation or verification program for online drug sellers covers as many areas as VIPPS, or does so as thoroughly. It is this criteria, and how it was developed, that sets the VIPPS program apart.

The Industry’s Toughest Standards
An online pharmacy must demonstrate compliance with a stringent set of criteria to qualify for VIPPS accreditation. Along with verification that the pharmacy is licensed in good standing by state boards, the VIPPS criteria includes questions in 19 Internet and practice-based areas, including:

• how the patient’s or caregiver’s identity is verified
• patient medication consultation
• the steps that are taken to ensure the patient’s confidentiality
• how medications are dispensed
• how controlled substance medications are secured and tracked when shipped to the patient.

The VIPPS program was developed by a coalition of state and federal regulatory associations, professional associations, and consumer advocacy groups. Because NABP accredits the online pharmacies based on criteria defined by regulators, consumers, and pharmacists, the public can rely on the VIPPS Seal to be assured that each patient receives the best in online pharmacy care. Currently, 15 pharmacy sites representing more than 12,000 pharmacies carry the VIPPS seal.

The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) was established in 1904 to assist state licensing boards in developing, implementing, and enforcing uniform standards to protect the Public Health. NABP’s member boards of pharmacy are grouped into eight districts that include all 50 United States, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, eight Canadian provinces, and New Zealand.

In response to public concern of the safety of pharmacy practices on the Internet, the association developed the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) program in the spring of 1999. A coalition of state and federal regulatory associations, professional associations, and consumer advocacy groups provided their expertise in developing the criteria which VIPPS accredited Pharmacies follow.

To be VIPPS accredited, a pharmacy must comply with the licensing and inspection requirements of their state and each state to which they dispense pharmaceuticals. In addition, pharmacies displaying the VIPPS seal have demonstrated to NABP compliance with VIPPS criteria including patient rights to privacy, authentication and security of prescription orders, adherence to a recognized quality assurance policy, and provision of meaningful consultation between patients and pharmacists.

VIPPS pharmacy sites are identified by the VIPPS hyperlink seal displayed on their Web site. By clicking on the seal, a visitor is linked to the NABP VIPPS site where verified information about the pharmacy is maintained by NABP. The public is also welcome to access the VIPPS site at www.nabp.net to search for a VIPPS Internet pharmacy, which matches their needs.

LegitScript is a verification and monitoring service for online pharmacies and the only such service recognised by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy as adhering to its standards aside from the NABP’s own VIPPS program.

LegitScript was founded by John Horton, who was a White House aide on drug policy issues from 2002 to 2007. The organization’s main office was initially located in Arlington, Virginia, but is currently identified as being in Portland, Oregon. The company is identified by the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies as a founding member.

In July 2008, LegitScript and KnujOn released a report about 150 websites that offer to sell anabolic steroids over the Internet without requiring a prescription. This report was also featured in the New York Times, as well as on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360. The report resulted in the termination of large underground steroids rings and controversy at pro-steroids forums. LegitScript and KnujOn also released two reports analyzing Microsoft and Yahoo sponsored search results for Internet pharmacies. Subsequently, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft announced that they were updating their advertising policies related to Internet pharmacies, and would in the future require that Internet pharmacies be approved by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy’s VIPPS program. Shortly thereafter, LegitScript announced that it would be helping Google implement the new policy by monitoring all prescription drug and pharmacy ads for the search engine.

In November 2008, LegitScript reported that it had shut down 500 “rogue” Internet pharmacies by notifying their ISPs and domain registrars. In May 2010, the company released a report regarding over 7,000 displaying a forged pharmacy license, indicating that it worked with 11 different domain name registrars to shut down the websites.

In March 2010, consumer protection website SiteJabber announced that it would begin integrating LegitScript’s legitimacy determinations into its Internet pharmacy ratings. In May 2010, the Web of Trust (MyWot) announced a similar initiative in which LegitScript Internet pharmacy legitimacy determinations would be integrated into MyWOT’s reputation rankings.

As of September 2010, LegitScript’s website indicated that LegitScript had approved over 320 online pharmacy websites as meeting LegitScript’s standards, and documented over 48,000 “rogue” online pharmacy websites.

An attraction of online pharmacies is drug prices. Shoppers can sometimes obtain 50 to 80 percent or more savings on U.S. prices at foreign pharmacies.

The Washington Post reported that “…millions of Americans have turned to Mexico and other countries in search of bargain drugs…U.S. Customs estimates 10 million U.S. citizens bring in medications at land borders each year. An additional 2 million packages of pharmaceuticals arrive annually by international mail from Thailand, India, South Africa and other points. Still more packages come from online pharmacies in Canada.”

Some people in the US, including some legislators, favor accessing foreign-made prescription drugs to lower Americans’ health costs. According to a Wall Street Journal/Harris Online poll in 2006, 80 percent of Americans favor importing drugs from Canada and other countries. President Obama’s budget supports a plan to allow people to buy cheaper drugs from other countries. A report in the journal Clinical Therapeutics found that U.S. consumers face a risk of getting counterfeit drugs because of the rising Internet sales of drugs, projected to reach $75 billion by 2010.

In the United States, there are two verification programs for online pharmacies that are recognized by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP). One is the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites Program (VIPPS), which is operated by the NABP and was created in 1999. The Food and Drug Administration refers Internet users interested in using an online pharmacy to the VIPPS program. The other is LegitScript, which as of September 2010 had approved over 340 Internet pharmacies as legitimate and identified over 47,000 “rogue” Internet pharmacies.