VIPPS Development On Schedule

Since early February, when NABP announced its plans to develop the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) program, the Association has received an overwhelmingly positive response from state boards of pharmacy, state and federal regulatory agencies, professional associations, Internet pharmacies, the media, and the public. When it is launched later this year here on NABP's Web site, the VIPPS program will identify to Internet users those on-line pharmacies that are appropriately licensed to practice pharmacy and meet specified practice criteria. Such criteria include providing assurances that the company is maintaining the privacy of users' medical information, a growing area of concern for Internet users, consumer groups, and the government.

NABP has been moving quickly to develop the VIPPS program. On March 22, NABP President Kevin E. Kinkade convened an advisory task force to discuss Internet pharmacy practice, review the VIPPS development process, and assess the proposed criteria for VIPPS participation. Task force members included representatives of the state boards of pharmacy, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the American Medical Association (AMA), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Association of Food and Drug Officials, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, prominent Internet pharmacies, and Internet portals.

"The VIPPS advisory task force meeting was extremely productive, with all attending groups expressing support for the program," said Kinkade. "The task force members cooperatively participated in the evaluation of the criteria for VIPPS participation," which was released April 5 here on NABP's Web site for a 30-day public comment period.

"This is not an exclusionary program. NABP will continue to include all entities with a vested interest in the VIPPS development," Kinkade noted.

NABP will begin accepting applications in May for VIPPS participation. A prototype of the VIPPS Web site for consumers will be displayed at the educational presentation area of NABP's 95th Annual Meeting, May 22–26, 1999, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. On-line pharmacy sites have also been invited to participate in the presentation area to familiarize board of pharmacy representatives with the companies and their operations.

PRIVACY INITIATIVES BY THE BBB AND CONGRESS

Several other groups besides NABP have been closely watching the emergence of Internet pharmacy practice and other e-commerce sites, with an eye towards monitoring their policies for maintaining an individual's privacy.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) recently launched its BBBOnLine Privacy Seal Program, which assures consumers that an approved Web site properly handles personally identifiable information. Similar to NABP's VIPPS program, BBB-approved sites will display the BBBOnLine seal on their Web sites to notify consumers that their privacy policies have met the BBB's criteria, and will have their information included on the BBBOnLine Web site.

Approved sites must agree to annual assessments of their on-line privacy practices and to participation in a dispute resolution system that resolves consumer privacy concerns. A Web site found to be in violation of its approved policies will risk losing its seal, having the matter referred to a government enforcement agency, and facing negative publicity.

The U.S. Congress has also joined the call for oversight. Democratic members of the House of Representatives' Commerce Committee, led by Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), have asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to launch an investigation of those companies that sell drugs on the Internet and evaluate "a host of serious regulatory concerns." As reported in the March 5, 1999 FDA Week, "The members are concerned that the practice could increase the number of drug interactions and raise issues with medical data privacy." The GAO was specifically asked to examine the industry's privacy guidelines to determine if sensitive medical information is being sold to drug companies or insurers.

EUROPEAN UNION TAKES MORE AGGRESSIVE APPROACH

The United States is not the only country addressing privacy concerns as they relate to Internet commerce. The European Union, whose membership consists of 15 European countries, has adopted a directive that would establish strict rules for companies that handle European consumers' personal data. Currently under an enforcement ban, the measure could bar the transmission of personal data to any country that does not ensure "an adequate level of privacy."

"The measure underscores long-standing differences between the patchwork approach to privacy protections in the United States and more aggressive European policies..." reported a March 6, 1999 Los Angeles Times article.

The Times article explained that European countries typically consider privacy to be a fundamental human right, a policy emerging from reaction to privacy abuses by Nazi Germany in World War II. According to the paper, a modern-day example of e-commerce operations that might not be acceptable to the European Union would be the compilation of a database of Jewish or Muslim people or of handicapped individuals, based on their meal or seating requests on an airline flight.

The European Union has agreed not to enforce the privacy directive while it is negotiating the issue with the United States. Currently, U.S. officials are negotiating a "safe harbor" arrangement for those U.S. companies that volunteer to take such steps as providing European consumers with greater warnings about how their data will be used by the company. Obstacles to an agreement center on the degree of access European citizens should have to the data, and how the arrangement would be enforced. U.S. proposals rely on industry self-regulation, which is not widely accepted by European officials.

"The White House has spent much of the last few years pressuring U.S. companies to upgrade their privacy policies, partly to improve the United States' bargaining position with Europeans," reported the Times. At the same time, privacy advocates in the United States have been monitoring the situation to see if U.S. companies that want to conduct e-commerce in Europe will make privacy concessions to European citizens that they have been reluctant to grant to U.S. consumers.

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