Ensure you check the pharmacy is on the official General Pharmaceutical Council register

We’re the regulator for pharmacies, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in Great Britain

Check the register

An example of website offering falsified medicine.

What you can do to protect yourself from buying fake medicines online?

Don’t buy from sites which offer to sell your medicine without a prescription.

Before you buy or obtain your prescription medicine from an online pharmacy, check that it is on the pharmacy register.

Don’t buy from websites who do not have a registered pharmacist available to answer questions. So check that there is a telephone number and ask for the name of the pharmacy which you can then search for on the GPhC register.

If you were to receive a package which contained your medicine and the package had been sent from a country outside of the UK, this may indicate the medicine is falsified and therefore taking the medicine could be risking your health.

Does the website offer ‘bulk discounts’, ‘sample packs’, ‘new cure’ or ‘amazing results’? If so, exercise even more caution – these “too-good-to-be-true” offers are probably trying to trick you into purchasing from that website.