"If the low prices seem too good to be true, they probably are", claims the FDA on an article dated September 28 and distributed to major news outlets. The truth is "If the high prices (in US) seem too high to be fair, they probably are (unfair). The real cause of the problems is that prices are 10 times too high in US for a brand name drug, compared with the same generic drug manufactured in China.

The prices in US are artificially supported - it is a highly regulated market with collusion between drug makers and the government to inflate prices. Indeed the FDA used to buy Google ads for keywords such as "online pharmacy", saying that "it is a felony to purchase drugs abroad".

What is wrong with this?

• Cause and consequences are confused (on purpose): the proliferation of online pharmacies is not the cause of the problem. The fact that drugs in US are much more expensive and frequently require prescriptions for no good reason, is the real cause.
• Such huge price variations for a same product offers arbitrage opportunities for middle-men (good and mostly bad) to set up online pharmacies abroad where it is not illegal, shipping drugs to US residents.
• It also creates a black market
• The FDA claims that drugs in US are good and that drugs purchased abroad are bad - thus insulting all countries in the world
• Because of the collusion mentioned above, drugs legally sold in US are not as good as the FDA claims, and it makes the FDA's claims untrustworthy

By the way, a website such as Yelp could help rank online pharmacies to decide which ones are bad or good. We don't need the FDA for that, crowd-sourcing works much better when spam issues are properly handled..

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