Selling non-prescription drugs

gavney

Hello, this may be the wrong forum, so please move if necessary

What are the laws regarding selling non-prescription drugs (paracetomol, lemsip etc..) bought wholesale from, say the UK? Do you have to have a special license to sell these in Ireland?

I heard that there's a different "identifying code" of some sort attached to items sold in pharmacies in Ireland, compared to those that are sold in the UK. Would that prevent anyone, say an ebayer for instance (that's me!) from selling non-prescription drugs in Ireland, that were wholesaled from the UK?

Thanks

Piste

From working in a pharmacy I remember there being some rule about not selling more than 24 paracetamol tablets at a time, but I'm not sure if this was a law or a guideline.

anotherlostie

I'm a little bit out of the loop on this, but I think that in order to sell human medicines in Ireland, the packs need to have what is called a PA number. In the UK, this is a PL number, and having a PL number will not suffice (i.e. it is illegal to sell packs with PL numbers in Ireland). The best you could hope for is that the pack is a joint Irish/ UK pack and would therefore have both PA and PL numbers. And as Piste stated, there is a limit of selling 12 paracetamol tablets at one time to a customer, which I would guess would make selling by post uneconomical for the customer. Furthermore if any of the ingredients of any of the products are classified as poisons (and you would be surprised what is), there are specific guidelines about how and from where they must be sold.

In any case I would NEVER buy medicines over the internet, much less Ebay, and I wonder how many people would.

sam34

i'm really not sure about this practice.
buying meds off the internet - particularly ebay- is dodgy anyway, imo.

im sure there are restrictions around this practice but i dont know exactly what the legislation regarding this is, and i think it's best to lock the thread until i find out a bit more about it.

sam34

ok. ive re-opened this at the OPs request.

i havent found any specific info regarding legislation in this ara, maybe teh pharmacists on the forum might be able to help us out.

the op is keen to emphasise that he doesnt want to do anything illegal, and just wants more info on whats possible.

anotherlostie

sam34 wrote: »

ok. ive re-opened this at the OPs request.

i havent found any specific info regarding legislation in this ara, maybe teh pharmacists on the forum might be able to help us out.

the op is keen to emphasise that he doesnt want to do anything illegal, and just wants more info on whats possible.

I thought that was what I just did?

sam34

anotherlostie wrote: »

I thought that was what I just did?

yeah i know, and thanks for your post, but the OP is looking for more info. maybe there's a pharmacies act or something, i dont know.

locum-motion

There's a huge amount of legislation in this area; the Medicines Act and the Pharmacy Act being the main two.

Broadly speaking medicinal products are divided into 3 categories: prescription only, pharmacy only and the stuff you can buy in Tesco/corner shop/petrol station etc.The OP would be inviting a world of trouble upon her/himself if s/he were to try selling anything from the first two categories via E-bay.

As regards the other stuff: anotherlostie is perfectly correct; any medicinal product placed on the market in Ireland must have a Product Authorisation (PA) number printed on the pack. PAs are granted by the Irish Medicines Board (IMB). If the OP was to buy abroad, say in the UK, the pack will have a Product Licence (PL) number on it. PLs are granted by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Occasionally a company may manufacture the same product for both UK and Irish markets, and therefore print both PA and PL numbers on the pack. Selling anything without a PA, whether online or in a shop, is going to attract the attention of the IMB.

As regards selling through the internet/E-bay: I know for a fact that it is illegal to provide prescription or pharmacy only medicines via 'mail order', which has been defined to include via internet selling. I have to confess to not knowing about whether or not the same applies to the stuff that Tesco can sell.

It is also illegal to import medicinal products into the Republic of Ireland unless you have the relevant license from the IMB.

I would advise getting advice from a lawyer with experience of the pharmaceutical industry before starting up anything like this.

And as a final point, why would anyone buy such products from E-bay when they can just nip out to the pharmacy/supermarket/corner shop/petrol station any time they want?

locum-motion

Piste wrote: »

From working in a pharmacy I remember there being some rule about not selling more than 24 paracetamol tablets at a time, but I'm not sure if this was a law or a guideline.

It's the law.
A pharmacist may personally sell up to 48 if they are satisfied that the purchaser has a good reason to need them.
A non-pharmacist working in a pharmacy and under the direct supervision of a pharmacist may sell up to 24.
Non-pharmacy outlets may sell up to 12.

tallaght01

We cant have a thread helping people to sell drugs on ebay. Sorry.