Online pharmacies prescribed 'green cross' logo

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) will roll out its internet pharmacy logo in 2008 to identify accredited online pharmacies.

The logo (shown below) will include the unique registration number of the pharmacy, hyperlinked to the RPSGB website, so a user can click to verify the registration details.

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The green cross logo was piloted last year and is designed to help the public identify whether a website is linked to a bona fide, registered pharmacy.

Lynsey Cleland, head of professional ethics at the RPSGB, told silicon.com: "Following useful feedback from the pilot we have been further refining and improving procedures in preparation for wider rollout."

Cleland said: "In order to ensure successful implementation and public benefit from the logo, the Society has had to develop and implement various new systems and procedures. A number of important checks must be carried out before the logo is issued to registered pharmacies in order to guard against inappropriate use.

"Whilst we [at the RPSGB] cannot completely eliminate the risk of the logo being copied we have taken steps to guard against this."

Cleland added: "When publicising the logo to members of the public the society intends to highlight the importance of not only looking for the logo on websites but also then clicking on the logo to verify that the pharmacy operating the website is registered. We will be promoting the logo as one of a number of checks that people should make when purchasing medicines via the internet."

Recent research from brand protection company MarkMonitor found - out of 3,160 online pharmacies studied - only four were accredited as Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (Vipps) - a voluntary industry scheme for legitimate online pharmacies which is administered by the National Assoication of Boards of Pharmacy in the US.

More than half of the online pharmacies studied did not secure customer data and one-tenth stated no prescription is required to purchase drugs, according to the MarkMonitor Brandjacking Index report.

The drugs are also offered at knocked-down prices, the research reveals. A sample of the pricing of one popular drug brand found the non Vipps-accredited sites charged an average of $2.72 for the medicine, whereas the accredited sites charged an average of $10.85.

Of these 3,160 pharmacies, 59 per cent were hosted in the US and 18 per cent in the UK.