Online pharmacies: how to avoid side effects
Tablets from the Network
Alexey Vodovozov, ABC magazine
The digital age is knocking at our homes. You can order food, books, movies, gifts without leaving your computer. And even medications if you are sick and unable to leave the house.
Orientation on the terrainYou type the phrase "buy medicines" in the search engine – and thousands of links fall out on you.
How to navigate this sea of offers? By and large, there are no separate online pharmacies. All of them behind their backs should have a real, familiar pharmacy with a license, warehouse, pharmacists and other attributes.
The first thing you should pay attention to on the site is information from the "About us" or "Contacts" section. There should be the name of the company, its address, and phone number. It is good if copies of the pharmacy license are posted. Check the street and the house via Yandex.Maps or Google.Maps – what if this address doesn't exist at all? Call the contact phone number. Check the name of the company in the search engine – suddenly someone has already had problems with this institution.
Knowledge is powerUnfortunately, the case is not complete without scammers.
How to protect yourself and suspect that the matter is unclean? Experts from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) come to the aid of Russian buyers.
In their opinion, it is worth avoiding online pharmacies whose owners:
- they do not provide an opportunity to get advice from a pharmacist or pharmacist
- do not specify addresses and phone numbers for communication
- they offer "new", "revolutionary", "wonderful" remedies that supposedly quickly cope with serious ailments or have a large number of indications
- they include in the descriptions of drugs the phrases: "incredible discovery", "miraculous deliverance", "exclusive product", "secret formula", "ancient recipes", "anti-aging of the body", "absolutely natural"
- they quote some "experts" who recommend these medicines to consumers
- spread stories of a "miraculous cure" for various diseases with the help of the proposed drugs
- offer prescription medications without requiring a prescription
- they claim that the drug is absolutely safe for any person
Do not confuse!There are a lot of services on the Internet that provide information about the availability of medicines in pharmacies and their cost.
Nothing is for sale on these sites – they only collect information and share it with visitors. A classic example is a first aid kit.<url>, a constantly updated interactive directory for 6 regions of the Russian Federation.
Another option that should not be confused with virtual pharmacies is registries and registers of medicines and dietary supplements. Classic examples: Radar (Register of Medicines) or the State Register of Medicines of the Russian Federation. They contain only descriptions of drugs, complete instructions, lists of synonyms and analogues, information about whether this medicine is being produced or not, etc. Here you can also check whether the drug sold on the website is a medicinal product.
The State Register of Medicines as of 10/28/2008, a *.xls file of almost 13,000 lines (rar archive, only 0.6 M) can be downloaded here – VM.
Dietary supplements, cosmetics and food products can be "punched" according to Rospotrebnadzor registers. If the site claims that the supplement has all the permits, but it is not in the registry, then you are being misled. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru10.02.2011