The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7244 p503
12 April 2003

This article
Reprint
Photocopy

News summary

Related websites
Quality and Safety in Health Care abstract (more)

Internet pharmacies put people at risk, researchers say

Buying non-prescription and complementary medicines via the internet is not safe. That is the stark conclusion of research conducted from Australia in the summer of 2001 (Quality and Safety in Health Care 2003;12:88).

The quality of information about two products — Sudafed (pseudoephedrine) and a preparation of St John's Wort — was assessed on 104 e-pharmacy websites in 13 countries and the products ordered from sites that offered delivery to Australia.

The researchers say that 21 of the 25 websites that offered information about pseudoephedrine provided useful information about its benefits, but that only 13 of them included useful information on risks associated with the drug.

Nineteen websites published information about St John's Wort, with 17 and 18 of them respectively giving useful information on benefits and risks.

"This study shows that consumers who self-select non-prescription medicines from e-pharmacies are at risk of medication misadventures," the researchers say.