Drugstore.com Battles Portals With Imported-Drug Ads
Drugstore.com is pushing Google, Yahoo and MSN to stop showing ads for online pharmacies that are not approved by the National Association Boards of Pharmacy, according to the WSJ.

Drugstore.com is one of only 15 online pharmacies approved to sell drugs online in the U.S. Most other online pharmacies are overseas and their shipping of drugs to the U.S. is almost always illegal, according to the FDA.

The company hopes to persuade the portals and search engines to stop showing paid ads for non-regulated pharmacies.

Larry Page, a co-founder and president of products at Google, called the campaign "highly commercially motivated" because the company is effectively trying to remove ads for low-cost competitors. While Google wants to obey U.S. drug laws, Mr. Page said it may be difficult for the company to determine whether an online pharmacy is based abroad and, even if it can, a Google user conducting a search using drug terms might be based outside the U.S.

"It might be easier for us to say we're not going to accept any pharmacy-related advertising, but that would mean consumers couldn't easily buy things and save money," said Mr. Page. "As a matter of principle, we want to have free choice for consumers ... even if we get some hassles for it."

AOL sees things differently. Andrew Weinstein, a spokesman for AOL, whose search engine and sponsored listings are operated in conjunction with Google, said AOL is "right in line with Drugstore" with regard to drug advertisements from questionable online pharmacies. He said AOL has asked Google not to deliver any sponsored links to AOL's search engine from pharmacies that aren't certified by state regulators, though he concedes that some such links are currently on the site. "We've found some and we're asking Google to take them down right now," said Mr. Weinstein.

Looks like the SEO companies should brace themselves for an influx of online pharmacies looking for natural search engine listings. If they get shut out of PPC ads, natural search will be their best alternative.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |