On-line pharmacies raise safety fears

On 20 August, MarkMonitor published the results of an investigation on the counterfeit/grey market for popular prescription drugs.

The investigation shows that:
 Out of the 3,160 surveyed on-line pharmacies, only four had gone through an accreditation scheme
 More than half did not secure customer data
 Extremely low prices suggested that some of the drugs sold were counterfeit
 A 10th of the sites advertised the fact that no prescription was required to buy medicines.

Around 59% of these 3,160 pharmacies were hosted in the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, which hosted 18% of the pharmacies.

In the UK, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) can only close British-based sites that break the law because it does not have jurisdiction over those based abroad. The agency advises consumers not to buy medicines on the Internet.

For more information:
 BBC article "Drug Website safety raised"