People worrying that Amazon will just be able to knock out counterfeit Rx Drugs are not thinking straight. You can't just act as an importer of medicines or be engaged in distribution of Pharmaceutical products for human consumption without having a Distributors License. Then you need a QP for product release in the UK as the UK technically can't mutually recognise product release done in the EU. Then you need a Pharmacist to sign off on dispensed drugs before they are sent out. There are whole swathes of pharmaecutical law that prevent any tom, dick or harry from just knocking out Rx medicines to fullfill a prescription.
The UK has all of them written into law when they were part of the EU and had lots of regualtions prior to that. Even with their departure from the EU they are not about to throw out all their safeguards and legislation on the control and prevention of counterfeit medicinces, not because they care about peoples safety but because the Pharma Lobby will crucify them and they will lose a boat of everything they need to keep in this country i.e science minds, UK manufacturing jobs etc.
As I said in an earlier post, what is more likely to happen is that at some stage in the near future Amazon will look at buying a small / mid sized Pharma company that already has an ML, DL and all the qualified people it needs for an end to end supply chain of Rx drugs. They would need QP's registerd in the UK (not including NI as they are still under the auspices of the EU with regards to pharma legislation) to release and product in the UK (Eng, Wales and Scotland, they would need another UK based in NI to do product release there). You can't just have a prescription fullfilled by a company in China and have the package sent to you air freight, that is illegal and the MHRA have an entire inpsectorate wing that deal with illegal imports of Rx drugs into the UK. If amazon set up any kind of service like this they would be inspected to hell and back to ensure they met the required UK compliance mandates for the supply of drugs for human consumption, including a full inspection of their supply chain, product release processes and distribution practices.
The UK has all of them written into law when they were part of the EU and had lots of regualtions prior to that. Even with their departure from the EU they are not about to throw out all their safeguards and legislation on the control and prevention of counterfeit medicinces, not because they care about peoples safety but because the Pharma Lobby will crucify them and they will lose a boat of everything they need to keep in this country i.e science minds, UK manufacturing jobs etc.
As I said in an earlier post, what is more likely to happen is that at some stage in the near future Amazon will look at buying a small / mid sized Pharma company that already has an ML, DL and all the qualified people it needs for an end to end supply chain of Rx drugs. They would need QP's registerd in the UK (not including NI as they are still under the auspices of the EU with regards to pharma legislation) to release and product in the UK (Eng, Wales and Scotland, they would need another UK based in NI to do product release there). You can't just have a prescription fullfilled by a company in China and have the package sent to you air freight, that is illegal and the MHRA have an entire inpsectorate wing that deal with illegal imports of Rx drugs into the UK. If amazon set up any kind of service like this they would be inspected to hell and back to ensure they met the required UK compliance mandates for the supply of drugs for human consumption, including a full inspection of their supply chain, product release processes and distribution practices.
