Digital Marketing: Problems of Internet Pharmacies Legal Regulation

Abstract

Digitalisation of pharmaceutical activities is creating a new type of pharmaceutical market, a more flexible and less costly; yet it has become more dangerous for patients and the economic stability. The reason is the imperfection of the legal regulation and online sales of pharmaceutical products, in particular. It is necessary to clarify that digitalisation of pharmaceutical activities is not only about online sales of pharmaceutical products. It is also digital marketing, which includes promoting pharmaceutical products via the Internet, including advertising such products. Research shows that prescription drugs are sold to such patients by both illegal online pharmacies and legal ones. Most counterfeit medicines are sold through illegal online pharmacies. The purpose of the article is to draw attention to the need for legal support for the activities of Internet pharmacies using more efficient technologies, including limiting their activities. Carrying out the research, several scientific methods were used. The methods of system-structural analysis, induction and deduction were used at all stages of the research in the study of the legal regulation of the sale of medicines in various countries through Internet pharmacies, the practice of its use, the state of illegal behavior in this area, analytical materials and scientific sources. The formal-logical method was used to study regulatory acts and international documents, the comparative-legal method was used to perform comparative analysis of the legal regulation of Internet pharmacies’ activity, as well as the practice of its application in the countries of the European Union, the USA, Turkey, Ukraine, and some Arab states. It should be noted that in the EU member countries, due to single European economic and customs area and general regulation, the problems of Internet pharmacies are of the same nature. The content analysis method was implemented for studying journalistic materials and researching websites that offer distance selling, online ordering, and delivery of pharmaceutical products to a consumer in various ways.