Pharmacy Daily | Australian women at risk

AUSTRALIAN women may be placing their health in jeopardy if they take medicines bought via online websites, according the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. The comments come on the back of growing concerns over the increasing availability of the EllaOne pill to Australian women, via purchases made on overseas websites. EllaOne (ulipristal acetate), can be taken up to five days (120 hours) after intercourse to prevent pregnancy, and works by modifying progesterone levels to stop ovaries from releasing an egg. So far the drug has not been granted approval for marketing in Australia by the TGA. Online websites offer the EU prescription-only medicine to patients following the completion of an online consultation which includes a number of medical questions, and is reviewed by an EU registered doctor. “By purchasing a medicine online, you risk purchasing counterfeit or fake medicines, and medicines that do not meet the strict TGA manufacturing and quality guidelines that protects consumers in Australia,” a spokesperson for the Guild said. “Medicines bought online may contain no active ingredients, too much active ingredients, the wrong ingredients or remnants of toxic compounds. “There are no guarantees that medicines purchased online will not be exposed to extreme temperatures or other potentially damaging conditions during transit,” the spokesperson added. According to the Guild, last year a British report found that one in four UK GPs treated a patient for reactions caused by medicines bought by consumers via online websites. In Australia the online medicines market contributes to the nation’s 125,000 adverse medicine reaction hospitalisations per annum.

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