Safe scheme for online drug sales proposed

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) is recruiting accredited websites to take part in a pilot scheme to make the online purchase of medicine safer.

With a growing trend for people to buy drugs online, the reliability of internet pharmacies is not guaranteed. People are at risk as they can acquire medicine from suppliers who have no professional qualifications or health expertise.

The RPS initiative will see the familiar pharmacy green cross logo appear on accredited websites, along with the registration number of the pharmacy in question. Users will then be able to click on the logo to verify the supplier with an RPS database of registered pharmacies.

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Lynsey Balmer, head of professional ethics at the RPS, told silicon.com it is important patients receive the same level of care online as they would by "walking into a bricks and mortar pharmacy".

When asked about the possibility of fake sites using a similar method to dupe consumers, Balmer said she could not guarantee the initiative would be 100 per cent successful but said the RPS would work hard to ensure people are aware of the scheme and how it works.

The RPS plans to run the pilot scheme, which has already attracted several online pharmacies, during the first three months of 2007. A decision will then be taken on whether to roll it out nationally.