Meeting the Challenge of Online Pharmacy - the key role of Pharmacists

There was lively debate at the Amsterdam Round Table on Online Pharmacy organised by the European Pharmacists Forum and Interpharm on the evening of 27 June 2005. The event was attended by around 70 Dutch pharmacists and a number of journalists. The audience took a very active part in the discussions, which were led by a panel of key figures from the Dutch pharmacy sector and a representative of the DocMorris internet pharmacy operator. Discussions were moderated by Prof. Bert Leufkens, of the University of Utrecht and delegates also heard presentations from Ornella Barra and Sjaak de Vries on developments in Alliance UniChem and in the Netherlands.

The panel saw the growth in online pharmacy as a natural extension of changes in culture and in patient expectations. Patients/customers are now shopping online for all types of goods and services and increasingly ask the question "Why pay more?".The patient representative on the panel took the view that online pharmacy offered benefits in terms of lower costs, ease of access and freedom of choice, particularly for patients suffering from long-term conditions and requiring regular repeat prescriptions.

The DocMorris representative on the panel acknowledged that they saw chronic patients as a key target market, prompting a UK pharmacist in the audience to point out that as chronic patients account for around 80% of prescriptions in the UK, this left only the remaining 20% as potential customers for community pharmacies in the future, which would result in the closure of many pharmacies. In the Netherlands, health insurers were actively directing patients towards online pharmacy operators as a way of cutting costs.

Both the GlaxoSmithKline representative and community pharmacists on the panel stressed the need for caution and proper regulation of internet pharmacies, pointing out that patients need guidance in order to ensure the safe use of medicines. Nevertheless, many felt that pharmacists should themselves make the internet work for them, and set up their own websites as a way of enhancing the services they offer and encouraging customer loyalty.

Marga van Weelden, Chairman of the Royal Dutch Association of Pharmacists, and Ornella Barra, Executive Director of Alliance UniChem, both pointed out that it was now increasingly important for pharmacists to demonstrate to governments, opinion-formers and the general public the added value of the professional services they offer, in order to be able to meet the challenges of competing with online pharmacy operators. It was important to develop the pharmacist/patient relationship and clearly show patients that they can rely on the advice and services provided by their local pharmacist.