Efforts to create a generic top-level domain for legitimate pharmacy websites gained traction last week when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN - the body that controls what goes into Internet URLs - gave the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy a passing grade for an initial evaluation of its plans for the domain, ".pharmacy."
If successful, the .pharmacy domain will create a powerful new weapon to combat the rise of illegal online pharmacies, which, according to many studies, constitute all but 3% of the websites selling drugs on the Internet. These are the "Canadian" pharmacies selling cheap drugs that one often sees links to on search engines and other websites; despite their supposed provenance, they're usually based in countries where regulations are lax or unenforced.
AUDIO Q&A: DSN recently caught up with Sajid Syed, president of Acro Pharmaceutical Services, to talk about how the company works with what he calls the "four P's" — the patient, physician, pharmaceutical manufacturer and payer — to provide an array of specialty pharmacy services to clients.