How to buy discounted medications online safely

Regulators in most countries maintain a public register of licensed online pharmacies, and several operate a visual trust mark that links back to that register. The critical step is to follow the link back to the regulator rather than trusting a logo displayed on the seller's own page.

In the United States, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy runs a verification service. In the UK, registered online pharmacies appear on the MHRA and GPhC registers. EU member states operate a common logo linking to the national register.

• Find the licence number on the seller's site, then search for it on the regulator's own website.
• Confirm the registered address matches the trading address.
• Check that a named responsible pharmacist is listed.
• Be suspicious of any site with no physical address at all.

Any single one of these is enough reason to walk away.

1. 1No prescription required for prescription-only medicine.
2. 2No named pharmacist or clinical contact.
3. 3No physical address, or an address that does not exist.
4. 4Payment only by cryptocurrency, wire transfer or gift card.
5. 5Prices dramatically below every other source, including other generic sellers.
6. 6Unsolicited email or social media promotion.
7. 7Spelling and grammar errors throughout product pages.
8. 8No batch number, manufacturer or expiry information anywhere.
9. 9Claims to cure conditions with no approved cure.
10. 10Pressure tactics such as countdown timers on medicine.
11. 11No returns, complaints or adverse-event reporting process.
12. 12Refusal to answer direct questions about sourcing.

Verification does not end at payment. Inspect the parcel before you take the first dose, and photograph everything as received.

• Outer carton sealed and undamaged, with legible printing rather than a stuck-on label.
• Manufacturer name, batch number, manufacturing date and expiry date all present and consistent between carton and blister.
• Salt name and strength match your prescription exactly.
• Patient information leaflet included and in a language you can read.
• Tablets or capsules uniform in colour, size and marking, with no chips, powder or unusual smell.
• For cold-chain items, the product was cold on arrival and any temperature indicator is within range.

It is tempting to see the prescription requirement as friction, especially when a site offers to skip it. In reality the requirement is the single most reliable filter between a regulated supply chain and an unregulated one.

A prescription also creates a record. If an adverse reaction occurs, that record lets clinicians reconstruct exactly what you took, at what dose, from which batch. Without it, diagnosis becomes guesswork.