A Snapshot of Online Pharmacies in Iran and worldwide: Quick review

In recent years, the online sale of medicines and supplements has become widespread in many countries. Although the online sale of health products can have numerous advantages, the lack of oversight can have serious public health consequences. The purpose of this study is to examine the challenges, legal approaches, and executive policies in different countries to help make appropriate policy decisions in this area in Iran.

A systematic search of PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus databases was performed. Finally, 29 studies and national and international regulations were reviewed.

Online pharmacies face challenges in ensuring patient safety. Among others, uncontrolled online distribution of medicines can lead to counterfeit products, drug misuse, misdiagnosis, lack of patient monitoring, and self-medication. For these reasons, leading countries in the online pharmacy sector are seeking to institutionalize regulatory and accreditation laws so that adverse consequences are minimized. In Iran, due to the increasing prevalence of illegal online pharmacies, it is necessary to make appropriate decisions more quickly so that, in addition to taking advantage of new technologies, the rights and health of patients and citizens are protected in the best possible way.

E-commerce of pharmaceutical products will be crucial to the development of healthcare systems in the future. Therefore, a strategic and comprehensive approach is likely to help regulators to regulate e-commerce of pharmaceutical products more effectively.