Legal Considerations on the Current Situation of Online Prescription Drug Sales

Abstract

Online drug sales are booming nowadays, and online sales of some prescription drugs are no longer prohibited by law, following over-the-counter ones. Because of its particularity, prescription drugs must be used according to doctor’s prescription to ensure their safety.In order to explore the illegal aspects in the current online prescription drug sales, the authors took three cases as the perspective and found out the following problems: Firstly, some online doctors do not hold valid certificates of medical practice; Secondly, doctors carry out first-diagnosis activities in violation of Internet Diagnosis and Treatment Management Measures; Thirdly, doctors do not follow the technical operation specifications, resulting in the diagnosis and treatment services are not compliant; Fourthly, doctors prescribe prescriptions in violation of the Prescription Management Measures. In addition, after the emergence of medical disputes, the responsibilities among online platforms, Internet hospitals and the physical medical institutions relied on are not clear, which is very detrimental to the rights protection of patients. The above problems seriously deviate from the safety principles that prescription drugs should follow. To study the current illegality of the current online prescription drug sales process, the author take the form of cases to carry out legal analysis. Furthermore, the authors hope that this analysis can attract the attention of the medicine, law, business and competent departments, so as to protect the basic human health rights of drug users right.