Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb is calling on internet providers to help eliminate illegal drug offers and sales online, The Washington Post reported.
Gottlieb noted that internet providers and others have taken action when the government called on them to help control the spread of child pornography. The commissioner said a similar, but voluntary, response can help combat the opioid crisis.
"Internet firms simply aren't taking practical steps to find and remove these illegal opioid listings… there's ample evidence of narcotics being advertised and sold online," Gottlieb said in prepared remarks that he will deliver at a drug crisis summit Wednesday evening, the newspaper noted.
"I know that internet firms are reluctant to cross a threshold where they could find themselves taking on a broader policing role. But these are insidious threats being propagated on these Web platforms," Gottlieb said.
The FDA will soon meet with chief executives of internet companies, researchers, and advocates to come up with some solutions, the Post said.
Most online pharmacies — 96 percent — are illegal because mainstream drug providers are restricted from anything that would appear to be advertising drugs, said Libby Baney, executive director of the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies, according to the Post.
"This is big criminal business that is endangering patients—and it's coming up on page 1 of a Google search. And patients believe they are getting good information because Google gets it right so many times," Baney told the newspaper.
A crackdown on opioids by the Drug Enforcement Agency netted 28 arrests and revoked 147 licenses, the DEA reported Monday.
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