The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has clarified advice on the delivery of medicines ordered from British internet pharmacies.
It has been suggested that the Society had applied different standards for two internet pharmacies - pharmacy2u.co.uk (PJ, November 27, 1999, p849) and allcures.com (PJ, February 5, p201). The Guardian for February 17 reported that pharmacy2u, which had bought a courier firm in order to fulfil the requirement not to use a third-party carrier, was "furious" that allcures was being allowed to use a standard courier service.
Telephone calls to The Journal had sought help with clarifying the position.
Mrs Susan Sharpe (director of professional standards) told The Journal on February 22 that obligation 1.13 of the Code of Ethics did not prohibit the use of third-party carriers for delivery services, although it said that they should not normally be used. Detailed guidance on the use of third-party carriers was given in Standard 15 for the home delivery of medicines.
"Provided these requirements are met, then the Society's Council has accepted the use of third-party carriers," Mrs Sharpe said.
She pointed out that although pharmacy2u owned a courier firm it was using for deliveries, that still constituted use of a third-party carrier because the courier firm was a legal entity separate from the pharmacy company. Pharmacy2u had subsequently bought a number of delivery vans in its own right.