In the United States, legitimate e-pharmacies require a valid prescription from a doctor or other health care professional before dispensing prescription drugs. They are licensed by the appropriate state agency and have a licensed pharmacist available to answer questions. They must also provide a street address. In many cases, e-pharmacy services are part of a person’s health insurance benefits. For example, OptumRx, Express Scripts, and CVS Caremark are affiliated with the UnitedHealth Group, Cigna, and Aetna health insurance companies, respectively.
Because prescription drug prices are high, some people turn to illegal pharmacies. Illegal pharmacies may send an unsolicited email offering medicine at a deep discount. These pharmacies are not licensed and allow people to buy prescription medication without a valid prescription from a health care provider. Buying pharmaceuticals from these types of businesses is risky. The medicines ordered may have too much or too little of the active ingredient, not contain the right active ingredient or contain harmful ingredients. An estimated 10% of medications available worldwide are counterfeit. In India and developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America more than 30% are.
The European Medicines Agency is currently warning consumers to avoid online pharmacies that falsely claim that a product they sell can treat or prevent COVID-19. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission issued warnings to 7 companies and shut down dozens that claimed their products do the same. Currently, there are no approved medications to treat or prevent COVID-19 and there are no vaccines available.
Today’s market size shows worldwide e-pharmacy revenues for 2018 and projected for 2025.1 In 2018, 11% of adult pharmacy customers obtained their prescriptions from e-pharmacies. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, some online pharmacies have been seeing a surge in orders as people decide to avoid public places such as brick-and-mortar pharmacies and instead order their medications online. Whether these new e-pharmacy consumers will continue to order their medication in this way once the pandemic is over and life returns to normal is yet to be seen.
North America is the largest market for e-pharmacies and is expected to continue to be through 2025 due to the growing number of internet users coupled with their familiarity with using online services. A growing awareness of e-pharmacies, especially ones affiliated with large companies, as well as government campaigns meant to educate consumers about how to spot illegal e-pharmacies are also expected to contribute to North America’s domination of the market. Leading global e-pharmacy companies include The Kroger Co., The Walgreen Co., Express Scripts Holding, CVS Health, Doc Morris, Giant Eagle, Wal-Mart Stores, OptumRx, 1mg, and Netmeds.
1 Revenues are for legal businesses only.
Geographic reference: World
Year: 2018 and 2025
Market size: $42.32 billion and $107.53 billion, respectively
Sources: “Global Share of E-Pharmacy Market Size to Surpass USD 107.53 Billion by 2025,” Zion Market Research Press Release, July 26, 2019 available online here; “Online Pharmacy,” Wikipedia, March 7, 2020 available online here; “How to Buy Medicines Safely From an Online Pharmacy,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration, January 25, 2018 available online here; Hannah Balfour, “EMA Warns Consumers About Falsified COVID-19 Drugs from Online Pharmacies,” European Pharmaceutical Review, March 31, 2020 available online here; Hannah Balfour, “FDA and FTC Issue Warning Letters to Companies Selling Fraudulent COVID-19 Products,” European Pharmaceutical Review, March 10, 2019 available online here; András Fittler, PharmD, PhD, et. al., “Consumers Turning to the Internet Pharmacy Market: Cross-Sectional Study on the Frequency and Attitudes of Hungarian Patients Purchasing Medications Online,” Journal of Medical Internet Research, August 22, 2018 available online here; Matt Baron, “COVID-19 Sparks Surge in U.S. Online Pharmacy Purchases,” Patch, April 3, 2020 available online here.
Image source: National Cancer Institute, “A Male Pharmacist is Examining a Drug from the Pharmacy Inventory,” Unsplash, January 29, 2020 available online here.