Purchase of medicines on the Internet: the prosecution is mobilizing to put an end to abuses

Under a circular addressed by the president of the public prosecutor’s office to the King’s attorneys general at the Courts of Appeal, the public prosecutor’s office will attack parallel circuits of illicit sale of medicines, via Internet networks and commerce platforms. electronic.

This was revealed by the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Amine Tahraoui, to the Chamber of Advisors, emphasizing that “the phenomenon, known as “online pharmacies” and having grown on a global scale, threatens the health of Moroccans, and raises legal and health challenges», relays the daily Al Ahdath Al Maghribia this Thursday, January 2.

According to the minister, adds Al Ahdath Al Maghribia«these online pharmacies, which range from simple electronic sites to developed e-commerce platforms, operate illegally and escape controls».

The minister also specified that “studies have shown that the rate of acquisition of medicines on the Internet continues to increase”, revealing that, “according to estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO), 10% of medicines marketed in developing countries, a large part of which on the Internet, are falsified».

Amine Tahraoui also indicated that “these parallel circuits of illicit sale of medicines have no relationship with pharmacies, pharmaceutical industry establishments, wholesale drug suppliers, hospitals, public and private health centers, since this sector is governed by laws relating to medicines and subject to the control of the pharmaceutical inspection, in addition to the commitment of pharmacists to respect the ethics of the profession and quality standards».

Medicines marketed on the Web, explains the daily, “would be manufactured by clandestine laboratories in conditions that do not respect international standards, as indicated by the National Federation of Pharmacists’ Unions of Morocco, in a correspondence addressed to the General Directorate of Customs, which has made efforts to fight against the phenomenon of drug smuggling».

Finally, Al Ahdath Al Maghribia recalls that according to the provisions of article 30 of Law 17-04, establishing the drug and pharmacy code, promulgated on December 7, 2006, “the preparation, possession and marketing of medicines are exclusively reserved for community pharmacists».