The Rx Depot, which facilitates the online Canadian drug trade through a number of storefronts, recently extended the deadline for its response to a Food and Drug Administration warning letter by some 30 days.

The FDA warned Rx Depot it was in violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act on March 21 because it facilitated that Canadian online business. "Your [Rx Depot] actions also present a significant risk to public health, and you mislead the public about the safety of the drugs obtained through Depot," the letter read.

The letter alleged that Rx Depot mislead consumers by telling them they had access to "FDA-approved" medications through Canada. In response, Rx Depot changed the language on its Web site to read "Canadian medications are not FDA approved; however, they do meet [Canada's Health Products and Food Branch] standards" with a link to HPFB's site.

According to Rx Depot president Carl Moore, the comany retained legal counsel, Tulsa, Okla.-based Richardson & Ward, and planned to respond to the FDA's charges at length by mid-May.

"I can tell you this: we're going to contest every issue," Moore said. "The only thing in the warning letter that applies [to us] is the aiding and abetting," Moore explained, contending that his company played no part in physically importing Canadian pharmaceuticals to his customers, as the FDA letter alleges.

"And we are going to continue to aid and abet," he said.

"Our interpretation of the law is that it's not a criminal act [facilitating Canadian imports]," Moore said. "There's not one thing we do that you cannot do at the public library, not one thing."

The Rx Depot is also prepared to fight an injunction of its operations from the Oklahoma State Board of Pharmacy and the Oklahoma attorney general's office that as yet has not been served, Moore reported. "I wish they would [shut us down]," Moore said. "I hope we do have our day in a court of law so that we can prove our position. But all they do is rattle sabers."

And business could not be better, despite all the political rambling, Moore noted. The Rx Depot "chain" currently operates 21 storefronts across six or seven states. An Rx Depot typically occupies between 800 square feet and 1,000 square feet of space. Of those locations, 19 are directly owned by Rx Depot and two are affiliates.

Rx Depot affiliates do not enter any franchisee relationship with the home company, Moore said, nor is there any other financial relationship to Rx Depot. "We simply allow them to come under our master purchase agreement," Moore said, an agreement the company has with one of three Canadian pharmacies, the largest of which is Canada US Pharmacy. Canada US Pharmacy operates as Northgate Clinic Pharmacy in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The affiliated companies don't necessarily take on the Rx Depot brand, either. "We serve as their big brother throughout, in terms of keeping their database updated," Moore said.

And the chain hopes to open as many as 100 more locations by year's end, Moore said. Of those new storefronts, 30 would be owned directly by Rx Depot. "We weren't going to do that many, but we've gotten so many People now who want to get involved that we're simply putting up two to three per Moore said.