LegitScript

LegitScript is a verification and monitoring service for online pharmacies. It is the only such service recognised by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) as adhering to its standards aside from the NABP's own VIPPS program.

The NABP has written that it endorses LegitScript on behalf of the government agencies that license and regulate pharmacies and pharmacists in the United States, Canada, and other jurisdictions for use "by search engine advertising programs, Domain Name Registrars, registries, payment processing companies, social media companies, and other Internet platforms to ensure that Internet platforms operate in compliance with applicable healthcare laws and regulations, and are not utilized in furtherance of the illicit sale of unregulated healthcare products". In addition, some EU government agencies have referred to LegitScript as the "appropriate authority" to which rogue Internet pharmacies should be reported. LegitScript has also worked with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to monitor and investigate Internet pharmacy websites.

LegitScript was founded by John Horton, who was a White House aide on drug policy issues from 2002 to 2007. Horton continues to serve as the company's President and also serves on the NASCAR Appeals Panel. The organization's main office was initially located in Arlington, Virginia, but is currently identified as being in Portland, Oregon. Mr.Horton has despite numerous requests never sourced the funding for LegitScript. Speculations have ranged from The Big Pharma Lobby to Lobby groups in Washington D.C

The company is identified by the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies as a founding member.

In July 2008, LegitScript released a report about 150 websites that offer to sell anabolic steroids over the Internet without requiring a prescription. This report was also featured in the New York Times, as well as on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360. The report resulted in the termination of large underground steroids rings and controversy on pro-steroids forums. LegitScript also released two reports analyzing Microsoft and Yahoo sponsored search results for Internet pharmacies. Subsequently, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft announced that they were updating their advertising policies related to Internet pharmacies, and would in the future require that Internet pharmacies be approved by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy's VIPPS program. Shortly thereafter, LegitScript announced that it would be helping Google implement the new policy by monitoring all prescription drug and pharmacy ads for the search engine. LegitScript states that it performs Google monitoring throughout North America, the EU, Russia and Asia for Google ads, and also identifies Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as clients.

...
Wikipedia