Marketing and pricing strategies of online pharmacies

Abstract

Internet and e-commerce have deeply changed society, the economy, and the world of health care.

Public eHealth and new scenarios in terms of risks and opportunities: a specific focus on cyberpharmacies

“…These marketing strategies appear to be comparable with those observed in the advertising of other commodities, as well as OP pricing strategies, as described by Levaggi et al (2009). The implied mechanism of these persuasion techniques seems to be aimed at distracting the potential consumer from the nature of the product he or she is going to buy: a drug, however, is not like any other commodity, and should only be taken if clinically needed, not because it costs less or it has often been bought by someone else who bought that product.…”

“…This represents a fundamental shift in the Internet's health-related role: from merely providing access to information (but full of consequences, as mentioned above), the Internet has now become a way to access health services as well, such as drugs, genetic tests and medical devices (Orizio et al 2009a;Levaggi et al 2009). More specifically, the sale of drugs on the Internet poses critical questions, and in our opinion is an emblematic example of how health via the Web has unimaginable implications, so complex as to involve deeply all the actors of the health world.…”

Not a good buy: Value for money of prescription drugs sold on the Internet

“…The study by Ref. [1] reports the results of this study and shows that on-line pharmacies charge higher prices for drugs, especially when they are sold without a prescription.…”

“…On-line drugs are available to anyone having an Internet access; the web has no geographical barriers, and its global dimension makes it virtually impossible to control on-line pharmacies. 1 The growth of this unregulated global market may increase the risk of inappropriate intake of drugs [3], and the spread of counterfeit and low quality drugs that may harm patient health [4]. In addition, many on-line pharmacies sells drugs without a medical prescription, and this can expose patients to the risks associated with the intake of inappropriate drugs [5,6].…”

“…. The initial choice was to buy from the same on-line pharmacies described in Ref [1],. but most of the websites we used in that study had changed name or address, or were no longer available 4.…”