Ar vaistinės turi teisę pardavinėti vaistus internetu?

Abstract

Many democratic countries do not deny the right of the pharmacies to create virtual storehouses, where the end users of the pharmaceutical products may easily access to the information about drugs and place an order, according to which the ordered drugs are to be delivered to the buyer. The primary goal of this article is to determine, whether the pharmacies can derive the right to sell drugs on-line in Lithuania, looking from the perspective of Lithuanian and the European Union legal acts. The analysis of jurisprudence of the western democracies revealed that e-pharmacies are supported by the public interest as a profitable business for pharmacies and as an effective mean to promote protections of human health. Two basic interests are at stake: a right to trade and a duty of the state to protect human health. The analysis of Lithuanian legal acts disclosed that drug trading on-line is not regulated per se. However, Lithuanian institutions, which control drug trading, interpret these acts as creating a ban for trading of pharmaceutical products in Lithuania, because drugs shall be sold in physically existing premises and only a pharmacist and not a postman, courier, shall serve a customer. The same rules apply to marketing of prescribed and non-prescribed drugs, since the legal acts do not make distinction between the categories.[...].