RESEARCHERS in the UK have called for urgent action to halt the illegal sale of antibiotics, after finding a significant proportion of online pharmacies were selling the drugs without a prescription.
The Imperial College London study found wide variations among online pharmacies in relation to antibiotic practices, with the problem posing "a serious threat to patient safety and national antibiotic stewardship initiatives".
Under current legislation, online pharmacies selling medicines to consumers in the UK must be formally registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
More than three quarters of the online pharmacies surveyed did not show evidence of having met these legal requirements.
A key problem is that some of the sites are hosted outside the UK, meaning they're not under the jurisdiction of the MHRA.
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