Viagra maker Pfizer and software giant Microsoft filed 17 lawsuits in Washington and New York states February 9, taking aim at spammers and Websites alike who have been pushing fraudulent versions of Viagra and other drugs.
Microsoft and Pfizer charged in the litigation that the operators of online stores pushing the fake drugs have used massive spam to drive traffic to their Websites, going to extremes to hide their identities and – in the case of one such site and the Web address it registered – using identity theft.
The suits mention none of the operators by name.
“Pfizer is committed to protecting the public from health and other risks associated with the illegal sale of fake and unapproved generic products claiming to be Viagra,” Pfizer executive vice president Jeff Kindler said in a formal statement. “Pfizer is joining with Microsoft on these actions as part of our shared pledge to reduce the sale of these products and to fight the senders of unsolicited email that overwhelm people’s inboxes.”
“The collaboration between Pfizer and Microsoft is another wake-up call to those who abuse the Internet for illegal purposes. Leading businesses are teaming up, pooling resources and sharing investigative information to stop this illegal activity at the source,” Microsoft senior vice president Brad Smith said in another formal statement. “At Microsoft we are combating this problem every way we can, including legal action, to ensure our consumers are protected from fraud.”
Pfizer believes about a quarter of the world’s spam is tied to pharmaceuticals, and said announcing the lawsuits that they sought Microsoft so the two giant firms could put their vast resources together to put a stop to the Viagra spam.
Two particular targets of the lawsuits are a pair of Internet drug stores believed to masquerade as a legitimate Canadian pharmacies, CanadianPharmacy and E-PharmacyDirect, according to court filings which also described them as professional looking – one linking to a site on women’s health maintained by Pfizer itself – but selling allegedly generic Viagra, Lipitor, Xanax, and Valium.
Pfizer attorney Marc Brotman told reporters that the cheaply-priced drugs in question are not genuine, and that investigators reputedly traced the fake Viagra to an unauthorized supplier based in India.
