Online prescribing lands 2 physicians in Oregon civil court

Government action against suspect Internet prescriptions is expected to increase in years to come.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. Nov. 24, 2003.

In what's believed to be a first in Oregon, the attorney general has filed a civil lawsuit against two physicians asserting they unlawfully advertised and sold prescription drugs over the Internet.

The lawsuit comes after disciplinary action by the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners wasn't enough to change the physicians' behaviors, said Jan Margosian, spokeswoman for the Oregon Dept. of Justice.

"The board of medical examiners did what they could do, and that did not stop them," she said.

The lawsuit, filed in Washington County Circuit Court, accuses general physician Steven Gabriel Moos, MD, and dermatologist Thomas Alfred Holeman, MD, of, without examining or seeing patients, selling the "female arousal cream" "Viaglide" over an Internet Web page that claims it has the "same active ingredient found in Viagra." The lawsuit also accuses the physicians of unlawfully selling free drug samples and of falsely advertising and selling human growth hormone as something that can "reverse the effects of aging."

Drs. Moos and Holeman could not be reached for comment.

This is not the state's first attempt to stop Dr. Moos from selling prescriptions over the Internet. In 2000, the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners put Dr. Moos on probation for 10 years, with an agreement that he would "not associate in any manner with any Internet Web site that renders or purports to render medical services to patients or prescribe medication." And after a hearing earlier this year, the board suspended Dr. Moos' license after it found that he was again selling prescription drugs over the Internet.