In December 1, 2003, the Washington Post ran this story on the front page:
Google to drop rogue-pharmacy ads: Move is part of government effort vs. illegal drugs
Google, the popular search engine, will stop accepting advertising from unlicensed pharmacies that have used the Internet to sell millions of doses of narcotics and prescription drugs without medical supervision, company officials said.
The decision by Google Inc., based in Mountain View, Calif., comes as regulators and members of Congress shift their focus from the illicit pharmacies to the legitimate Web portals, credit card companies, shippers, and banks that facilitate the sales. Three congressional committees are looking into the issue.
Federal regulators, who have limited authority over online advertising, are examining how they can prod the search engines and other businesses to deal only with legitimate pharmacies.
"We're literally placing calls to the search engines trying to get a meeting going," said Peter Pitts, the FDA's associate commissioner for external affairs. "You can't blame them for accepting commerce. But they really haven't understood the consequences."
Nearly eight years later, it seems those consequences are somewhat better understood. Today this story hit the pages of the New York Times:
U.S. Inquiry of Google on Drug Ads
Federal regulators are investigating Google on suspicion of illegally displaying ads for online pharmacies that are operating outside the law, government officials said Thursday.
Google has set aside $500 million to pay for a potential settlement, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing the company made on Tuesday. It said the money was for the “potential resolution of an investigation by the United States Department of Justice into the use of Google advertising by certain advertisers,” but gave no details.
In the last year, Google has made significant changes to its policies for accepting pharmaceutical ads, most recently in January. But Michael Zwibelman, litigation counsel for Google, has described it as “an ongoing, escalating cat-and-mouse game.”
In February 2010, Google changed its AdWords policy to accept ads only from pharmacies certified by the National Association Boards of Pharmacy in the United States or the Canadian International Pharmacy Association.
Better late than never.
