Online sale of medicinal products with an optional medical prescription

Sale of medicinal products with an optional medical prescription over the internet

The draft Article contains four measures aimed at reforming the provisions on the sale of medicinal products over the internet defined in the Public Health Code:

1. Transition to a prior declaration regime for websites that sell medicinal products online, with the corollary of a posteriori control by the competent local regional health agency (amendment to Article L5125-36).

2. Extension of the possible places for carrying out the sale of medicinal products on the internet: the sale of medicinal products on the internet can thus be carried out in a place different from that of the pharmacy, which will be attached to the pharmacy licence and placed under the supervision of a pharmacist (Article L5125-33). In the event of the pharmacy being closed, the premises dedicated to online sales will also be closed (Article L5125-38).

3. Authorisation of pharmacies to pool their technical resources to build a shared platform for the online sale of medicinal products (Article L5125-33).

4. Adaption of the conditions for recruiting assistant pharmacists by linking them to ‘the activity of the pharmacy’, a concept that will be defined by decree (Article L5125-15), and completion of this system by providing for the option of a financial measure in the event of non-declaration or incomplete declaration of their activity by the pharmacist (Article L5424-2).