Publisher of Seniors’ Informational Sites calls for Consumer Reports to Address misstatements in article on personal importation of medicines

November 3, 2011--Citing what he describes as a series of misstatements in a Consumer Reports article about the safety of personal importation of prescription medicines purchased by Americans from countries outside the U.S., the publisher of a series of leading informational websites for an Aging America has called upon Consumer Reports to take steps to provide its readers with facts about the record of millions of Americans who have chosen personal importation of safe, affordable medicines as a remedy to paying U.S. prescription drug prices—the highest in the world.

Daniel Hines, publisher of www.TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com,

www.BoomersNewsOnLine.com and http://RxforAmericanHealth.blogspot.com, says that the Consumer Reports article is particularly distressing because it departs from the standards that have made the magazine trusted and respected by untold numbers of Americans over the years.

“Unfortunately, the author of the article, entitled ‘Save money by ordering drugs from Canada? Not so fast’,  does not address the savings of personal importation as the headline and lead of his story indicate, nor the efficacy and safety of personal importation  from licensed pharmacies in a number of countries whose standards of oversight meet or exceed those of the U.S.,” says Hines.

“ Instead, he relies upon a news release from the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) which  attempts to link such legitimate pharmacies and sources with the existence of bogus pharmacies.

 “In our blog at http://RxforAmericanHealth.blogspot.com, we present the facts regarding the claims of the NABP point-by-point,” Hines continues.  “We do this because there is a solid record of health benefits for millions of Americans which otherwise have been denied because of the costs of prescription medicines in the U.S., a fact which, ironically even the Consumer Report article admits to in its ‘lead’ for the story, citing that the cost of prescription medicines in the U.S. forces many people to not be able to afford their prescriptions.”

Hines says the NABP  article is an unfounded attack not just from pharmacies in a particular country, but is an effort to discredit the practice of personal importation by implying that Americans lack the ability to act in a responsible manner to identify safe, affordable sources.

“We urge Consumer Reports to conduct a research to develop data on the experience of those Americans for whom personal importation has provided a life-line of vital medicines which they would otherwise be denied,” Hines said.