Please submit your individual responses to this discussion question (DQ) by Thursday , January 10, here in the Main > forum where we will discuss them as a class.The DQ responses should be between...

Page | 1
Discussion Question: week two
Question 1
What are some of the challenges of investigating online pharmaceutical sales? How might law enforcement agencies better combat this challenge? What recommendations might you suggest to improve these efforts?
Answer
Challenges in online pharmaceutical sales
Like all other products pharmaceuticals sales are also conducted via internet. Online transactions are highly convenient for the customers as well as sellers, this type of transactions helps in reducing overhead expenditures and increase overall efficiency in health care industry. There are several advantages associated with online sales such as improved safety, convenience, fast, less cost; however, with increasing online sales there are number of challenges faced by the pharmaceuticals company.
Major concern is easy access to dangerous medicines to public, the drugs which can only be purchased by medical prescription are being easily purchased on internet by public and it is inducing unethical and illegal practices (Bruckel & Capozzoli, 2002). Another matter of concern is increasing illegal practices; customers fail to recognize legitimate web pharmacies and might end up buying product from online drug store, which might sell them dangerous products. Another important aspect is keeping the health care information private and confidential, however in online sales customers have to share their personal and financial data with the company, which might be used for other companies for marketing purposes.
Regulation is very crucial while selling medicines to customers, however operating websites in the market is very easy task to do; this makes government monitoring and controlling on E-pharmacy difficult. There are large numbers of foreign companies that operate and sale illegal drugs in the market, these websites can be easily removed and no action will be taken against them. For example in United States around 25 percent of the online drug stores are foreign company and do not require prescription while buying medicines.
Role of law enforcement agencies
The role of law agencies can be divided into two broad sections, the state laws and the federal laws. The state laws are majorly concerned with the monitoring and regulation of the pharmacists and physicians. Whereas, under federal law there are two major agencies that are responsible for regulating these online sales of medicines; this includes the Food and Drug Administration and Drug Enforcement Administration (Karberg, 2009). These agencies are responsible for protecting and preserving the safety and security of the health of general public by monitoring the prescription drugs.
These agencies can helps in creating awareness among the public about online medicine purchase. People should...