Canadian online pharmacies have stricter safety standards than drug Web sites in other countries, including some U.S. operations, according to a report from the General Accounting Office. GAO investigators bought drugs from Internet pharmacies in the United States, Canada and 10 other countries. All 18 Canadian stores required customers to provide a doctor's prescription before filling orders. Only five of the 29 U.S. pharmacies required prescriptions, and no other foreign pharmacies did. Drug orders from the United States and Canada had labels from the dispensing pharmacy and typically included instructions and warnings, the report found.
While the Canadian drugs were not approved by the FDA for use in the United States, they had similar chemical composition to the approved drugs, according to the report. Several bills now in Congress would strengthen federal oversight of online pharmacies and inspections of foreign drug manufacturing centers. The FDA has said it cannot guarantee the safety of foreign drugs