N.C. Company Offering Cipro Prescriptions Online Stops Taking Orders from State Residents
VirtualMedicalGroup.com, one of the nation's largest online vendors of the anthrax treatment Cipro, stopped accepting orders from North Carolina residents last week as the state's medical board continued its investigation into Internet drug sales to patients who have not been examined by a physician, the Charlotte Observer reports. After filing the first charges for online Cipro prescribing against Dr. Michael Ross two weeks ago, the medical board on Friday brought charges against two more physicians who work with the Morrisville, N.C.-based company (Stobbe, Charlotte Observer, 11/3). Drs. Dianne Nguyen and Gregory Teel were charged with unprofessional conduct for their work with VirtualMedicalGroup. Their licenses could be annulled, revoked or suspended, following hearings scheduled for December. "This is not a narrow-minded attack on Web-based medicine," Andrew Watry, executive director of the North Carolina Medical Board, said, adding, "This is a patient care issue -- you can't generally prescribe for people you've never seen" (Angwin, Wall Street Journal, 11/5). VirtualMedicalGroup CEO Tania Malik said the company will cooperate with the medical board's ongoing investigations of physicians' online prescribing practices. The company will continue to serve patients in other areas of the country (Charlotte Observer, 11/3).
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