Online pharmacies: Australia needs ‘safe list’

Substandard and counterfeit medicines, and online pharmacies which aren’t legitimate, are a serious and growing problem, say experts. Australia needs to set up a “safe list” of online pharmacies in a bid to protect consumers from potentially dangerous medicines, says Dr Conor Hensey from the Department of General Medicines at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, in MJA InSight. Dr Hensey says that this would allow consumers easy, reliable access to a list of authorised online pharmacies, which they could refer to before buying medicines online.