The pharmacies have also become ‘e-pharmacies' or ‘online pharmacies'. An online pharmacy comes loaded with benefits. Apart from convenience, the online pharmacies offer cheap online drugs that may be available at a higher cost with your pharmacist. At times, you can get some of the drugs at dirt-cheap price from the so-called discount pharmacy. Besides, many of these pharmacies also offer online prescriptions from their qualified panel of doctors for the patients.

The online pharmacies have gained considerable publicity in the recent years due to a revolutionary change in the pharma sector. The drugs like Viagra for example have changed the meaning of life for millions of patient in US alone. These online pharmacies offer complete privacy to the patients and deliver the drugs at their doorsteps.

However, the legality of these pharmacies has always been a talking point amongst the legal experts. Some of the experts are of the view that online prescriptions are a mere farce. They argue that no doctor can prescribe drugs without proper physical verification of the patient. Moreover, US FDA is also taking strict measures against these online pharmacies. As a result, most of these online pharmacies have either closed down or shifted their operations from the US to online pharmacy ‘friendly' countries. The FDA directive rules that if any shipment of online pharmacy is detected in US, it must be seized immediately.

The experts while dealing with online pharmacies have suggested certain lookout measures. These include –

• Consult a qualified doctor physically.

• The integrity of the online pharmacist must be thoroughly verified by scanning the legal steps it proposes to take from receiving the order to shipment.

• Crosscheck the drugs for quality and quantity if receiving the drugs from the shipment of online drug pharmacy.

• Beware of online scandals!!

The legal measures notwithstanding, the online version of cheap pharmacy is here to stay.