News and Events May 25, 2006    Ex-worker blows whistle on popular web pharmacy Updated Thu. May. 25 2006 10:40 PM ET Kathy Tomlinson, CTV News It's Canada's first and most successful internet pharmacy -- known on the web as RxNorth.com. Based in Manitoba, the company has created jobs and wealth in Winnipeg and the small town of Minnedosa, and it's now filled 2,000 prescriptions for Americans -- mostly seniors -- giving them a significant price break on prescription drugs. The company sells primarily over the Internet, where it advertises "discount prescription medication from Canada." The website tells potential customers: "You can buy Canadian drugs and medication from Canada from our Canadian pharmacy at discount prices. It is simple to order Canadian drugs from our online Canadian pharmacy." A former customer service representative contacted CTV Whistleblower to say RxNorth isn't being up front with customers about where their drugs actually are shipped from. "You are dealing with people (customers) who are a captive audience," Edward Hector told CTV. "They're seniors. Some of them have varying degrees of dementia." For one thing, many of the drugs RxNorth sells now are actually not from Canada. Under its other company name, Mediplan Global Health, RxNorth now purchases a significant amount of medication direct from manufacturers in the UK or Australia. Those shipments are then sent to a dispensing facility in Freeport, Bahamas, where the Internet orders are filled and then shipped directly to U.S. customers. Hector worked for RxNorth for over a year. He recently quit, he told CTV, because he didn't like some of those business practices. "We were told that we were not to tell the customers that the medication was coming from the Bahamas," Hector said. Hector told CTV he took complaints, almost daily, from Americans who said the medication sent by RxNorth was at or near the expiry date -- medication that had been shipped from the Bahamian facility. "I had a gentleman who phoned me up and said that he opened up his Crestor (for high cholesterol) and he found that it had already expired," said Hector. Hector also claimed, in some cases, the customers complained that the drug expiry date was covered up by the prescription label. "The expiry date was covered ... so the customer couldn't read it." He claims one customer actually sent him a photograph: "The label was at the top of the (medication) blister pack and it was covering right over the expiry date." RxNorth denies allegations "Anybody can come and make allegations because they are upset about a company," RxNorth CEO Andrew Strempler told CTV. "We're open all over the place," he said. "And we're going to be opening multiple facilities around the world." Strempler admitted, though, that they don't tell customers about the Bahamas dispensary. That's because, he said, it would be misleading. "From the Bahamas I can buy the Australian product, I can buy the European product and I can sell it all from one place." He told CTV that, from the Bahamas, the medication is then shipped to customers in its original manufacturer's packaging. He said they do get rare complaints from customers about expiry dates, and, in those cases, they send replacements. "We have no intention of hurting a customer. We have no intention of providing expired medication. It would not serve our best interests." Strempler also vigorously denied expiry dates are intentionally concealed. "We put a prescription label wherever we can," he said. "There's never an intention to cover up an expiration date on a product. If I wanted to cover up the expiration date on a product I would pour everything in vials the way the drugstore down the street does." Still, Hector has now complained to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). "It's great to say we (RxNorth) are great fellows. But, if even one customer dies because they have taken medication that's expired that's one too many," he said. The FDA told CTV its primary concern is that, when companies like RxNorth do business in numerous countries, no one regulator is watching over them. "They are not regulated by the United States because we don't have jurisdiction, they're not regulated from Canada because they are shipping to the Bahamas, and they are not regulated by the UK for the same reason", said Randy Lutter, an FDA spokesperson in Washington. After CTV interviewed their CEO, RxNorth managers offered a tour of its Bahamian facility. Then, they changed their minds. Now, the company is suing Hector for defamation -- claiming he made false allegations about their practices to CTV. Hector said he's speaking the truth. In a separate issue, Strempler, who is also a pharmacist, is now being fined by the Manitoba Pharmaceutical Association, for filling 10 thousand U.S. prescriptions, in 2001, without approval from a licensed Canadian doctor. Send us your tips, stories and ideas to CTV Whistleblower: Email address: whistleblower@ctv.ca Phone number: 416-313-2494 Mailing address: Whistleblower c/o CTV News Toronto Bureau 444 Front Street W. Toronto, Ont. M5V 2S9 User Tools Print This Page E-Mail Story Feedback Top Stories Father 'humbled' by response   |Welcome| |Other| |Other| |Contact Us| |News| .