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Online
Dispenser of Drugs Wants Some Respect
KwikMed, an Online Seller Of Viagra, Cialis, Propecia, Thinks It Merits Some
Respect
By JULIA ANGWIN and CARL BIALIK
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—The home page
of KwikMed.com's Web site looks like a run-of-the-mill source of
sexual-stimulant pills, complete with a picture of a couple being playful in
bed and a banner declaring: "Viagra as low as $6 per dose."
But from his headquarters in a low-slung office park here, KwikMed Chief
Executive Peter Ax is waging a lonely campaign to win respect for his
business.
Despite opposition from the medical establishment, pharmaceutical companies
and many state and federal lawmakers, Mr. Ax is hoping to convince critics
that his business of prescribing and selling drugs online is not only
lawful, but also an important medical service.
"This is the future of medicine," says Mr. Ax, a 45-year-old venture
capitalist. He says he has invested millions in KwikMed, which deals in
"lifestyle drugs" such as impotence treatments Viagra and Cialis and
hair-loss remedy Propecia.
KwikMed has won permission from the state of Utah to operate legally as long
as it adheres to a strict set of guidelines. That makes it the only online
prescription Web site in the U.S. that has won explicit approval from a
state, according to the Federation of State Medical Boards.
Even so, KwikMed is facing an avalanche of opposition. The FSMB has asked
Utah to reconsider its approval of KwikMed. Viagra manufacturer Pfizer Inc.
has lobbied the Utah state legislature to crack down on KwikMed. A number of
lawmakers on Capitol Hill are proposing federal legislation that would
target online pharmacies. And dozens of states have revoked or suspended the
licenses of doctors and pharmacists who work with Web pharmacy sites.
With such forces arrayed against it, KwikMed's efforts to legitimize its
business—and online prescriptions in general—may seem quixotic. Mr. Ax's
efforts, in the short term, are hurting his business as less scrupulous
competitors undercut him. Already, many other pill-dispensing Web sites have
gone under, gone underground or moved overseas. "Everyone who is serious
about doing it the right way is either considering selling or changing their
business model," says Tania Malik, former chief executive of
VirtualMedicalGroup.com, another such site.
But KwikMed's efforts as an early pioneer in the field raise the larger
question of whether online prescription services have a legitimate role in
the medical community in the future. Many medical professionals believe that
the Internet will eventually be a powerful tool for doctors and patients.
But in a field where most doctors still keep paper files, it's too early to
say how e-prescriptions will evolve.
While many people use Web pharmacies like drugstore.com to fill
prescriptions they get from their doctor, KwikMed goes a step further by not
only selling drugs, but also arranging for patients to obtain a prescription
from a doctor through an online consultation. The National Association of
Boards of Pharmacy says companies that do so are "rogue" sites. But KwikMed
says what sets it apart is that it does more than simply provide a
perfunctory consultation with a doctor: Its physicians review an extensive
online medical questionnaire that patients fill out.
Each potential customer must fill out a 20-minute survey before KwikMed's
doctors will write a prescription. Although many other Web sites have
questionnaires, KwikMed convinced regulators that its form was more
comprehensive than even the medical histories taken during a visit to a
doctor's office.
From the November 16, 2004 issue
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