Health care is one of the most confusing aspects of getting treated for any medical reason and trying to find the best present for your epharmacy can be just as hard. More and more people are increasingly turning to online pharmacies to help budget their medical prescriptions and save a little extra money. But utilizing them can have potential lawful consequences and could put your health in danger.

While this seems easier, there are a few things to know when developing your online pharmacy website and we are going to review 10 things you need to know before developing an online pharmacy.

1. NOT ALL ONLINE PHARMACIES ARE THE SAME
   • One of the biggest drawbacks about using an online pharmacy vs a standard pharmacy is that many of them are not legally regulated by the FDA. That means they are not being checked up on by federal regulators so they may or may not be complying by the strict standard set in place by the FDA to ensure that your drugs are safe. While there are many different legitimate online pharmacies available to choose from online, there are a large number of illegitimate ones as well.
   • According to the transparency market research, Global ePharmacy market is increasing day by day and forecast to improve by adopting more online pharmacy features.
2. WHAT IS LEGAL
   • While on the topic of legality, we will want to look at what is legal and what is illegal when it comes to selling drugs online. All drugs that are offered through a US-based online pharmacy that is certified by the NABP are deemed legal. The NABP, National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, is an organization that the FDA recognizes as the leading authority in pharmacy.
   • Often, online pharmacies — particularly those based outside the U.S. — guarantee drugs without a prescription. That is a warning flag. The drugs sold online without medication are not constantly genuine, sometimes have no dynamic ingredients and may even contain harmful ingredients, Baney says.
   • As per the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, 96% of every single online pharmacy don’t consent with state and government laws or patient safety standards. Medications purchased online could be inauthentic, it says.
3. WHAT IS ILLEGAL
   • To keep you on the right side of the law, we will want to look at a few things that will give you a clear picture of selling drugs on an online pharmacy. It is illegal to sell controlled substances without a licensed doctor prescription.
4. WHAT RESEARCHERS SAY
   • There have been many reports put out by different research firms to see how legitimate online pharmacies actually are. A report put out by the NABP in 2013 shows that over 96% of online pharmacies that were selling to the citizens of the US did not comply with US laws and regulations. This is a very alarming number to see as only 90 of the over 10,000 pharmacies that they investigated had actually been found to be legitimate. However, a 2012 study by the NBER showed that all US pharmacies had required a prescription verification.
5. HOW AN ONLINE PHARMACY WORKS
   • An epharmacy is very similar to a physical pharmacy except it can offer prescriptions at a lower price due to being able to serve many different people from all over the country from just one location. Drugs are ordered online from the online pharmacies and shipped to you via common shipping companies.
6. HOW ONLINE CANADIAN PHARMACIES ARE DIFFERENT
   • The US and Canadian pharmacy practices are very similar as they both follow each other pharmacy rules. Canadian pharmacies follow US rules when selling to US customers and vice versa. They will ensure that no controlled substances are sold to US patients and will verify prescriptions with US doctors to verify that the prescription is legitimate. They will also not require a separate Canadian prescription.
7. WHAT ARE THE SECURITY CONCERNS?
   • 40% of the drugs available online from Mexico, according to the FDA estimates, were counterfeit, making them a useless sell. India’s laws on drugs are very incomplete making them hard to regulate and there are no laws on e-commerce in India making you very vulnerable to having patient information stolen.
8. HOW TO PURCHASE PHARMACY DRUGS ONLINE
   • To make sure that you are going to sell the correct drugs that are safe and regulated, it is best to develop an online pharmacy that is NABP or CIPA certified.
9. WHAT DOES THE FDA THINK?
   • The FDA, Federal Drug Administration, is an organization that regulates consumable products that are sold to the public. They play a big role in medical drugs and pharmacies to ensure that drugs are safe for consumption. The FDA works very diligently to seize illegal drugs and crack down on illegitimate sites that offer them.
10. HOW TO DEVELOP THE BEST ONLINE PHARMACY
    • To develop the best online pharmacy, it is best to check the best pharmacy website development companies who follow standards of NABP, CIPA, and LegitScript sites. This is going to be an easy way to navigate your way around the legitimate site.

If you’re looking to sell medicines online and want to start an online pharmacy website or mobile application, then please reach out to EMedstore.

We are an international award winning pharma application development company providing customized online pharmacy solutions to clients which can grow your pharmacy business with more than 30%.

Get in touch with our experts at info@emedstore.in or call us: +91 973 771 2429 directly. We’ll reach out to you within 24 hours.