Real online pharmacy or virtual pharmacy? What's the difference?
An online pharmacy is the virtual extension of a physical pharmacy. It can only be recognized as such if it is backed by a physical pharmacy and if its website is hosted by servers approved by the Agence Régionale de Santé, the French Ministry of Health and the Ordre National des Pharmaciens.
To distinguish genuine online pharmacies from fake ones, there are several things to check on the website: the pharmacist's name, RPPS number (Répertoire Partagé des Professionnels de Santé), pharmacy details and license number, and the name and contact details of the hosting company. Links to the Ordre National des Pharmaciens website and to the French Ministry of Health must also be clearly visible on the interface. In addition, the customer must have a private account in order to benefit from exchanges with the pharmacist. Finally, the pharmacy's website must be written in French.
For greater simplicity, a list of all approved online pharmacies is available to the public on the Ordre National des Pharmaciens website.
Can I buy drugs online and still benefit from the advice of a pharmacist?
Customer service doesn't disappear with the advent of the online pharmacy, it evolves. Pharmacists expanding online are obliged to offer personalized advice directly from the pharmacy interface. Customers who have a secure account on the site can freely discuss prescriptions, the nature of medicines, contraindications, etc. with the pharmacist, without having to go anywhere and in complete confidentiality.
Buy online what you don't dare to buy in a physical pharmacy
The online pharmacy is an obvious guarantee of discretion. Who hasn't felt embarrassed at the pharmacy counter when ordering condoms or diapers for senior citizens? With online pharmacy, confidentiality is absolute.
For prescription-only "sexual stimulants", it is also possible to order discreetly from the pharmacy's website, but they must be collected from the pharmacy counter on presentation of the prescription. The same applies to all prescription-only medicines.
Respecting and protecting health data is of paramount importance to all pharmacies. Thanks to the obligation to host online sites with an ARS-approved service provider, consumers/patients feel secure in the knowledge that their health data is protected from the risk of piracy and hacking.
The growth of online pharmacies threatens to drive physical pharmacies out of business
In the same way that supermarkets have gone online without reducing their store traffic, online pharmacies do not represent a threat to physical pharmacies. On the contrary, they complement each other. Online pharmacies not only make daily life easier for consumers, but also, and above all, boost business for professionals.
What's more, an online pharmacy cannot exist without the support of a physical pharmacy, and only non-medical drugs can be sold over the Internet. The physical pharmacy therefore has a bright future ahead of it, particularly if it embraces the Internet, which will enable it to adapt to the new consumer habits of its patients.
Buying online gives you a competitive edge, but encourages consumerism
As an e-commerce site, the online pharmacy is naturally subject to a certain amount of competition. For consumers, this can mean real savings. Indeed, in terms of pricing policy, online pharmacies are not subject to the same constraints as physical pharmacies, and are free to set their own prices. They can therefore offer preferential rates.
According to a study carried out by EuroClinix in 2012 on the behavior of French people when buying medicines over the Internet, 50% of those surveyed were motivated by the attractiveness of the price, proof if it were needed that buying over the Internet often rhymes with saving money.
However, this analysis needs to be qualified insofar as the French have a complex relationship with health and are still reluctant to order their medicines online (only 4% of French people took the plunge in 2013 - Source: Ifop survey). So, for practical reasons but above all out of a sense of trust, French consumers/patients will tend to order from the website of their usual physical pharmacy, and won't necessarily try to take advantage of the competition.
On the other hand, online purchasing offers access to a multitude of products and, compared with a traditional pharmacy, the showcase of medicines offered on the Internet enables them to be much more prominently displayed. While the online pharmacy may therefore be a greater incentive to consume, it is above all able to offer consumers products that it would not necessarily have the space to stock in its physical pharmacy, and can therefore meet a much wider range of demand.
With delivery charges, products sold online won't necessarily be cheaper
Although perceived as a source of savings, the online pharmacy is first and foremost a service to the individual in terms of time-saving, confidentiality in the purchase of medicines and everyday practicality.
While the online pharmacy complies with the rules of a conventional e-commerce site, and can therefore offer consumers attractive offers and competitive prices, this is not its primary vocation.
Buying online saves time: no consultation and no waiting in the pharmacy!
This is definitely one of the major advantages of the online pharmacy. On a purely practical level, it enables city dwellers to avoid queuing in large city pharmacies, or, on the contrary, offers the possibility of ordering medicines online and having them delivered to the home when the pharmacy is far from the home. Similarly, with the online pharmacy, it's now possible to book a late appointment with the doctor, order your medication when you get home, and collect it the next morning. For 38% of French people surveyed by EuroClinix, buying medicines online even means avoiding a face-to-face consultation with a doctor.
Medicines sold over the Internet are counterfeit
50% of medicines sold on the internet are counterfeit, according to a 2012 study by EuroClinix. Top of the list of counterfeit drugs are Viagra, weight-loss treatments, sleeping pills and flu treatments.
These alarming figures are just a reminder of the importance of the legal framework governing the sale of medicines online, which today enables us to offer reliable, secure services to consumers and reassures them about the quality of the products purchased.
To deal with the sale of illicit drugs, we have to rely on sites approved by the Agence Régionale de Santé. Today, there are some 50 such sites, with over 150 applications pending.
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