Google and Microsoft unite with Obama to fight illicit online pharmacy

Google and Microsoft announced their support for a new non-for-profit outfit created to join the Obama administration's effort to crackdown on illegal internet pharmacies. The alliance is comprised of companies that service "choke points" on the Internet including Yahoo, MasterCard, Visa, American Express, GoDaddy, Neustar, eNom, and Paypal. It is being formed in response to the President's call for private efforts to police online drug peddlers.

The US government believes that its effort would financially strangle the the purveyors of fraudulent drugs on the internet by restricting access to credit card approvals and domain names.

According to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, an estimated 1-2 percent of drugs in North America are fraudulent, and worldwide drug counterfeiting is expected to grow from being a $32 billion industry to a $75 billion industry in 2010 alone.

"Those who sell prescription drugs online without a valid prescription are operating illegally, undercutting the laws that were put in place to protect patients, and are thereby endangering the public health," U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinal said in a statement. "It is a real wake-up call that so many Americans have engaged in this dangerous behavior."