Sunday, February 28, 2010

Online pharmacist eludes ban

From the Winnipeg Free Press:
An Internet pharmacist who recently lost his credentials to practise in Manitoba is distributing generic drugs from an online pharmaceutical business based on an island off the coast of Venezuela.

The Free Press confirmed online pharmacy pioneer Andrew Strempler's business, PharmaCheck, started operating in a free-trade zone in Curacao in August 2006 -- the same month the U.S. Food and Drug Administration first warned consumers prescription drugs from Strempler's Manitoba-based online pharmacy, RxNorth, were unsafe.

Strempler did not respond to interview requests from the Free Press, and an employee at his Curacao office said he is currently in Panama. His company's website says PharmaCheck Canada has expanded beyond the North American market and now ships generic pharmaceutical products to Europe, Central and South America and the Caribbean.

The news that Strempler is still in business outside Manitoba comes as a shock to local regulators, who recently wrapped up a three-year probe into allegations his Minnedosa-based Internet pharmacy sold counterfeit prescription drugs to Americans. Strempler agreed to strike his name from the provincial pharmacist registry and pay $7,500 as part of a deal to stay the charges against him at a discipline hearing last October. Experts say it's the most severe penalty that can be handed to a pharmacist and prevents Strempler from renewing his licence to practise in Manitoba. ...more

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

the truth is that he actually asked to have his license removed because he was moving away (non-resident status) and he paid less than half the cost of the investigation that wasn't going anywhere anyway. For this the MPHA was dropping all investigations and agreed to stop harassing him... facts are far less interesting than fiction...