Pfizer recently decided to sell Viagra directly through Viagra.com and use one mail-service pharmacy to deliver the product in an effort to rein in the sale of counterfeit products from illegitimate online pharmacies. We share Pfizer’s commitment to protecting patients from the illegitimate supply chain. But directing patients away from local pharmacies and disrupting the relationship with their local pharmacist for a single prescription medication is not the answer.

Many in the profession are concerned that major pharmaceutical manufacturers will target product sales directly to consumers without the traditional guidance and intervention of the medical team’s drug expert—the pharmacist. The National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations, the National Community Pharmacists Association, and APhA sent a joint letter to Pfizer on May 20. As I wrote in my editorial in the June issue of our Pharmacy Today magazine, “Our goal with the letter is to open a dialogue with Pfizer about real solutions to the challenges to supply chain integrity, rather than a quick fix with unintended consequences.”