Talk:Online pharmacy

Latest comment: 4 years ago by GermanJoe in topic Legal status in India?

Bias? edit

It seems to me that this article tilts against the notion of Online Pharmacies. Specifically, the line about how some Online Pharmacies do not require a prescription to sell drugs that normally require them seems a bit tough as of today to prove. The source to back up that claim is from 2002, and a big crackdown has occurred on those websites since. Originally I read the passage as POV, that some websites are out selling drugs without prescriptions required and that was a large issue. I reread and reverted my earlier posts...websites like that may exist, although I highly doubt their authenticity. The feedback I've gotten from folks that use online pharmacies indicate that sites that sell prescription drugs without a prescription are always fraudulent in nature. Either the item shipped is substandard or isn't even the genuine article...provided these sites ship anything at all. Personally, I think that those websites that claim to sell prescription drugs without a prescription shouldn't even be classified as an "Online Pharmacy", more accurately they should be categorized as frauds. Any pharmacy that does ship real medication that is on the level would not last long selling those drugs without an prescription. Pharmacies are overseen by the DEA, and inventories of controlled medications are closely scrutinized. If a pharmacy does sell any quantity of drug without a prescription, the DEA will shut them down fast. If you doubt this...I DARE YOU TO TRY IT! Even the International varieties that are legit have some level of control.

That being said...if the passage was referring to a variety of pharmacy that doesn't require a pre-written prescription from a doctor to be sent to the pharmacy first before filling, then I believe the author is misinformed a bit about the nature of those pharmacies. On the surface, that would seem like a prescription isn't required. However - thats not the case. Pharmacies like the one mentioned have their own on-staff physicians to write prescriptions for the medication requested...provided it is warranted and legitimate. An actual prescription IS issued, and almost always (and I mean 99.9999999% of the time) requires certified medical records demonstrating the condition the drugs are being used for does exist and has been treated in the past by a provider seen face to face within the last year. Some even require face to face meetings with their in house physician(s), who often times specialize in Pain Management. These pharmacies usually cater to Chronic Pain patients who cannot get the medication needed from their own doctors for whatever reason. Again, while on the surface it seems like a prescription is not required, in fact that is far from the truth.

If anyone disagrees, type it down here and I will discuss with ya! Tbkflav 18:58, 11 October 2007 (UTC)Reply

Re-Importation edit

I found this article while looking for a topic covering the controversy of re-importation of prescription drugs that are sold by US manufacturers for lower prices outside the US than for the same medications sold in the US. Is there such an article here at WP and I am missing it?

Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008 edit

IMPORTANT: please discuss the "Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008" in the context of this article. 71.204.189.140 (talk) 05:02, 21 March 2009 (UTC)Reply

Never heard of it. Maybe you could do some research and write a paragraph or two into the article so that others can learn about it also. DMacks (talk) 05:19, 21 March 2009 (UTC)Reply

UK Online Pharmacies edit

There are a growing number of UK based Internet Pharmacies now trading. These pharmacies are regulated by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (www.rpsgb.org) and must display a logo and their unique registration number.

I think this should be included in the article to ensure UK readers look for the logo. Richtagg (talk) 22:13, 11 June 2009 (UTC)Reply

Canadian Pharmacy spam edit

Does anyone know how to contact the web hosting company for the "Canadian Pharmacy" spam? They're starting to spoof other companies (cheap watches, write me about your account closure, etc. etc.). How can we stop them? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.100.48.167 (talk) 16:54, 12 June 2009 (UTC)Reply

Duplicate References edit

References 12 and 18 are to the same URL. I assume 18 should be removed. 151.203.71.134 (talk) 17:48, 22 May 2011 (UTC)Reply

Also mail-order edit

This article should include the closely related subject of mail-order pharmacy, either in the scope of the lead paragraph or perhaps even in the title. Grantmidnight (talk) 22:26, 11 July 2011 (UTC)Reply

Improve edit

This article needs a lot of work to meet normal Wikipedia standards. I have started by some clean up and moving some clarification to the lead section. Rlsheehan (talk) 23:52, 18 July 2011 (UTC)Reply

Hyperdrug edit

The cited webpage, an archive of Hyperdrug's website, does not make any claims that it is an online pharmacy (doing any business online) rather than just a physical pharmacy that has a webpage. Note that it talks about mail-order service and gives a physical mailing address, with an email address for foreign contacts in general. Therefore it does not seem to meet the definition of a true "online pharmacy". And as I did say when I undid your edit, "have to go with cited ref." We can't rely on our own detective work to contradict a reliable published source. BBC says "the launch of the UK's first online pharmacy...the Pharmacy2u service". DMacks (talk) 18:11, 29 January 2013 (UTC)Reply


The definition is: Online pharmacies, Internet pharmacies, or Mail Order Pharmacies are pharmacies that operate over the Internet and send the orders to customers through the mail or shipping companies.

Hyperdrug have been a mail order Pharmacy for well over 20 years and online since 1998. The archive is a primary source not detective work whereas the published article is merely reporting someone's press release and is a secondary source. The archive shows products, prices, and is a the online presence of a pharmacy, it is an assumption to presume a lack of "shopping cart". I have a 1998 mail order pharmacy catalogue from Hyperdrug advertising a web address on it's front page you cannot find a better primary source than that? Benwatsonuk (talk) 20:08, 29 January 2013 (UTC)Reply

. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.74.243.216 (talk) 14:05, 30 January 2013 (UTC)Reply

That sure is the subject of the article. But it's not asserted (and contradicts lay language meaning) to claim that mail-order is the same as online/internet. Note the earlier section on this very talk-page where they are discussed as two separate ideas to be merged into a unified article. Mail-order stores of various types have existed for many decades before computers as we know them existed! DMacks (talk) 14:29, 4 February 2013 (UTC)Reply

Proposed merge edit

I recently accepted an article at AfC, perhaps optimistically, on Online pharmacies in India, based in part on a few articles discussing legal issues that have arisen because of this. After spending a good couple hours pulling out problematic material and sources, I was left with the idea that anything left might best, for the moment, at least, be integrated into this article. I do think there is a little room, possibly, for expansion, there may be coverage (or may not be) on the size of the industry, and in any case, few of the issues raised are India-specific. --j⚛e deckertalk 21:36, 9 November 2014 (UTC)Reply

Support. "[F]ew of the issues raised are India-specific" sums up my thoughts here. One set of ideas is about US consumers, which is already a section in the parent Online pharmacy article...would be easy to add a sentence or two with any citeable details unique to Indian pharmacy sources. The parent article also has sections for information specifically about various markets (regulation, etc.) so a section with a sentence or two regarding how India regulates it (or other details about intra-India sales) would fit into one there. DMacks (talk) 22:12, 9 November 2014 (UTC)Reply
Support. I agree, this article already covers online pharmacy in several countries. benrusholme (talk) 13:56, 16 November 2014 (UTC)Reply
  Done Klbrain (talk) 12:21, 11 July 2017 (UTC)Reply

Blacklisted Links Found on Online pharmacy edit

Cyberbot II has detected links on Online pharmacy which have been added to the blacklist, either globally or locally. Links tend to be blacklisted because they have a history of being spammed or are highly inappropriate for Wikipedia. The addition will be logged at one of these locations: local or global If you believe the specific link should be exempt from the blacklist, you may request that it is white-listed. Alternatively, you may request that the link is removed from or altered on the blacklist locally or globally. When requesting whitelisting, be sure to supply the link to be whitelisted and wrap the link in nowiki tags. Please do not remove the tag until the issue is resolved. You may set the invisible parameter to "true" whilst requests to white-list are being processed. Should you require any help with this process, please ask at the help desk.

Below is a list of links that were found on the main page:

  • http://perry4law.org/clii/?p=221
    Triggered by \bperry4law\.org\b on the local blacklist

If you would like me to provide more information on the talk page, contact User:Cyberpower678 and ask him to program me with more info.

From your friendly hard working bot.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 17:17, 11 August 2015 (UTC)Reply

Blacklisted Links Found on Online pharmacy edit

Cyberbot II has detected links on Online pharmacy which have been added to the blacklist, either globally or locally. Links tend to be blacklisted because they have a history of being spammed or are highly inappropriate for Wikipedia. The addition will be logged at one of these locations: local or global If you believe the specific link should be exempt from the blacklist, you may request that it is white-listed. Alternatively, you may request that the link is removed from or altered on the blacklist locally or globally. When requesting whitelisting, be sure to supply the link to be whitelisted and wrap the link in nowiki tags. Please do not remove the tag until the issue is resolved. You may set the invisible parameter to "true" whilst requests to white-list are being processed. Should you require any help with this process, please ask at the help desk.

Below is a list of links that were found on the main page:

  • http://perry4law.org/clii/?p=221
    Triggered by \bperry4law\.org\b on the local blacklist

If you would like me to provide more information on the talk page, contact User:Cyberpower678 and ask him to program me with more info.

From your friendly hard working bot.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 00:30, 14 August 2015 (UTC)Reply


Use of credit cards by children edit

"Minors or children can order controlled substances without adult supervision." These online pharmacies require a CC to order pharmacuticals. So how could a child or minor have a CC? Boilingorangejuice (talk) 21:40, 1 May 2016 (UTC)Reply

New article - Consumer import of prescription drugs edit

I just made Consumer import of prescription drugs. This is a related concept to online pharmacies because sometimes people buy things from a pharmacy in another country. I wanted to distinguish this concept as its own article. Blue Rasberry (talk) 23:38, 7 March 2017 (UTC)Reply

Legal status in India? edit

The whole section seems problematic due to the inclusion of original research (analysis of primary information) and the usage of low-quality sources such as blogs. It would be great, if a knowledgeable editor without a conflict of interest could look into this section more closely. The section should clearly distinguish undisputed facts from certain legal issues that seem to be currently under dispute in India. GermanJoe (talk) 12:02, 18 September 2019 (UTC)Reply