Wild West online pharmacies are selling lethal doses of addictive prescription-only drugs without adequate safety checks, an investigation has found.
The study attempted to purchase three banned drugs – painkillers as well as sleep and anxiety medications – from online pharmacies.
It identified 20 people who were promoting at least one of the drugs without appropriate checks, such as approval from a patient's GP.
The investigation yielded 1,600 prescription pills, including a “potentially lethal dose of the drug used to treat anxiety.”
Customers could buy the drugs within minutes of completing online questionnaires, which one site said was as “convenient as ordering your groceries online.”
An investigation has found that UK online pharmacies are selling limited drugs, sometimes in lethal doses, without appropriate checks such as approval from a patient's GP (stock photo)
The research, conducted by the BBCfound that three pharmacies sold the anxiety drug, nine the painkiller and fourteen the sleep medication without appropriate checks.
Some pharmacies even sent reminder emails about 'great' items in their online shopping cart, urging customers to 'buy before time runs out'.
Such promotional marketing language should not be used to sell prescription-only drugs, according to regulators.
The BBC added that each of the 20 online pharmacies selling to the reporters had issued a disclaimer urging them to tell their GP about their purchase.
The broadcaster has chosen not to identify the online pharmacies or the exact medications purchased online for public safety reasons.
But shockingly, these were from registered online pharmacies, legitimate retailers, as opposed to illegal black market sellers.
Thorrun Govind, pharmacist and former president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said patients' lives were being put at risk by the current 'vague' guidelines for online pharmacies.
“The current guidelines basically tell pharmacies to be robust, but do that in your own way, and we know that under this current system, patients have died,” she said.
'This has led to such variation, with some online pharmacies asking for checks such as video consultations, while others simply let you click on the medicine you want and continue paying.'
The families of Britons who have died after taking medicines supplied by online pharmacies have renewed calls for action following the findings.
Christine Taylor's daughter, Katie Corrigan from St Erth in Cornwall, died after buying painkillers and anxiety medication online without telling her GP.
The 38-year-old had originally been prescribed them by her GP for neck pain.
However, Mr Corrigan's doctor stopped short of handing over the pills out of concern she took too much.
An inquest found that none of the online pharmacies that supplied her with the drugs had contacted her GP to check whether the drug was safe for her.
Christine told the BBC: 'It's far too easy: it's about human lives, and it's a disaster waiting to happen.'
Pharmacy regulator the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPC) says online pharmacies must 'secure all the information they need' to ensure they can deliver medicines safely and appropriately to a patient.
It warns that no 'risky, addictive' drug should be sold without proper safety measures.
Commenting on the investigation, GPC chief executive Duncan Rudkin said it raised “very serious concerns”.
“We have asked the BBC to provide further information so that we can urgently investigate these concerns and take action to protect patients and the public,” he said.
'Our guidance for registered pharmacies providing remote services, including on the internet, clearly states that selling and supplying medicines remotely poses several risks that need to be managed appropriately to protect patient safety.
'Medicines are not ordinary commodities and should not be treated as such.'
Mr Rudkin added that the GPC expects pharmacists to implement appropriate safety checks when dispensing medicines to patients, particularly those at risk of misuse, such as opioids and painkillers.
He said the GPC is taking regulatory action against any online pharmacy that does not follow proper controls.
'We have identified cases where some online pharmacies have supplied these high-risk medicines to patients without the pharmacy owner, prescriber, pharmacist in charge or other members of the team taking appropriate steps to check whether the medicine being prescribed and delivered was clinical. appropriate for the patient,” he says.
'In response, we have taken enforcement and regulatory action, where appropriate, against the owners of these registered pharmacies, as well as individual pharmacy professionals involved in both the prescribing and supply of medicines, whose conduct may not have met professional standards. standards.'