1800Petmeds

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it.
Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. (December 2007)

1800PetMeds
Type	Public
Founded	1996
Headquarters	Pompano Beach, Florida
Industry	Retail
Products	Pet medications
Website	http://www.1800petmeds.com

1800Petmeds, often known simply as petmeds, is an online pet pharmacy offering prescription and non-prescription pet medications and other health products for dogs, cats and horses. Its parent company, PetMed Express, Inc., was founded in 1996 and is traded publicly (NASDAQ:PETS).

1 Product lines
2 Company news
3 Company officers
4 Advertising
5 Controversies
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Product lines

1800petmeds offers a selection of products for dogs, cats and horses, including both prescription and over-the-counter medications, health and nutritional products and animal foods. In order to sell the prescription medication, 1800petmeds is a pharmacy licensed or authorized to conduct business in the United States.^{[citation needed]} 1800petmeds sells its products primarily to retail customers, as well as its non-prescription medications to various businesses, including pet stores, groomers, and traditional retailers in the United States.

[edit] Company news

PetMeds is a publicly traded company, listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PETS. The company was picked 4th among Forbes Magazine's 200 Best Small Business Companies in 2006 and number 6 in 2007. ^[1] ^[2] BusinessWeek named 1800PetMeds number 27 of its top 100 "Hot Growth Companies" in 2006.^[3]

[edit] Company officers

Headquartered in Pompano Beach, Florida, 1800PetMeds is led by Robert C. Schweitzer, Chairman of the Board; Menderes Akdag, President, Chief Executive Officer and Director and Bruce S. Rosenbloom, Chief Financial Officer.^[4]

[edit] Advertising

In January 2007, Petmeds.com began airing television commercials featuring actress and animal activist Betty White. White who serves on the Morris Animal Foundation, a national research oriented group dedicated to improving the health of companion animals, is the author of Betty White's Pet Love - How Animals Take Care Of Us.

[edit] Controversies

In 1998, the Florida Pharmacy Board received several complaints against Petmeds alleging that the company had issued medications without a prescription from a veterinarian. The complaint was settled in 1999 with the FPB requiring Petmeds to pay a small fine without admitting any wrongdoing.^[5] The complaints were based solely on allegations made by veterinarians in competition with 1-800-PetMeds rather than by the general public, and involved the referral of prescription requests to an alternate veterinarian, on behalf of customers whose veterinarian refused for no legitimate medical reason to authorize the prescription request. At the time of the use of the program, 1-800-PetMeds had a legal opinion (from an attorney who is also a pharmacist) that the program did not violate any regulations. Use of this referral program was voluntarily ceased by 1-800-PetMeds in February, 2002.

In 2001, Petmeds and the Environmental Protection Agency settled a "stop sales order" after Petmeds had sold flea control products that had been purchased outside of the United States and therefore gave their dosages in metric numbers. The maker of the misbranded product, Novartis, also sued Petmeds over the issue. ^[5]

In 2002, Petmeds was sued by the Texas State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners for similar issues to the Florida case. ^[6]The suit was settled without any admission of wrongdoing.

In 2004, after the company went public, 6 securities lawsuites were brought against Petmeds by its shareholders, claiming that Petmeds had delayed disclosing past problems in order time to allow its executives, including founder Marc Puleo, to sell off their shares. ^[5] PetMed always maintained that the suits were without merit and in 2005, all 6 suits were voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiffs.