Safely Buying Medicines Online (Updated 2020)

With the digital space becoming more and more a part of everyone’s daily lives, it was inevitable that ordering online medicine was going to become a possibility. However, finding approved and legal websites that sell medicine online is important for your health and safety. Online pharmacies offer a safe way to order prescriptions and medicine online, find our guide to discover how you can check if a website is legally selling medication online. 

Fake and Illegal Websites 

In the UK, many people choose to buy their prescription medication online because of the convenience it allows. However, many online pharmacies are unregistered and could be selling falsified medicines, which are usually ineffective, substandard and dangerous. Due to the ease of creating a website, there are many that claim to be legitimate online pharmacies when they are actually not qualified and registered to sell medicines online. Here are a few ways you can help protect yourself when buying medicines online.

You can follow these easy steps to make sure you buy from legitimate sources:

• Check whether the EU logo appears on the homepage of the website that you are considering buying medicines on;
• Click on the logo. This takes you to the national competent authority website, which lists all legally operating online pharmacies and other legally authorised retailers of medicines that are established and registered in the country;
• Check that the online retailer is listed.

Check websites and online pharmacies in the UK 

In the UK, you can also check a pharmacy using the online register provided by the General Pharmaceutical Council to find if the organisation is listed and operating legally. MHRA is the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency that operates to keep you safe when ordering online medications or products. They are part of the Government and also offer an online service to check if a website is legally selling medication which you can use to help keep yourself safe when shopping and ordering online before making any purchases.

Websites and online pharmacies that are legally recognised to sell medicine online must always display a MHRA verification logo or distance selling logo. This can be found on the Weldricks site at the bottom of every web page. This is to help online users identify websites, but it is important to also check further by clicking the logo and checking the register. 

Reporting Suspicious Websites 

If you feel a website could be illegally selling or offering medications online, MHRA offers an online service where you can report suspicious websites for further investigation. By doing this, you are helping keep yourself and others safe from illegal activity which could pose dangerous to one’s health. Follow the instructions of the MHRA service to make sure your report is sent correctly. 

Do not order or share personal information with these sites as they could be scams. Protect yourself by contacting and following the MHRA instructions instead. 

Ordering from Trusted Online Pharmacies 
 

There are pharmacies that do offer online services and can be an efficient way for people to order repeat prescriptions or products to their doorstep. Here at Weldricks, we legitimately stock pharmacy and healthcare products online by displaying the registered pharmacy logo and the MHRA verification logo on the bottom of every page on our website. This gives our customers confidence that they are buying from a trusted source.