Separating online piracy from counterfeit medicines: The need for policy reform and a call to action

The recent public backlash against proposed federal anti-piracy legislation provides important lessons regarding promoting public policy for public health and patient safety online. Anti-piracy legislation contained many novel regulatory strategies that may have had an impact on combating counterfeit medicines sold by online pharmacies, but was derailed due to non-health related considerations and concerns about intellectual property rights protection. Instead, effective policy to regulate online pharmacies needs to focus on health and patient safety issues separate from intellectual property considerations to combat this online crime.