Stop Spending Money on Costly Medication! Read How Online Pharmacies Help You Save Time, Effort, And Money

An online pharmacy is a website or an application that helps consumers buy a medicine, both prescriptive and non-prescriptive, at their convenience. The growth of online pharmacies is attributed to the ever-expanding digital health market that has shifted towards self-diagnosing from the conventional clinical visits of patients. 

India experienced digital health growth in 2015 when IIPA (Indian Internet Pharmacy Association) was raised by 11 start-up E-pharmacy companies. However, online pharmacies achieved the expected growth after the Covid-19 pandemic when this venture got an opportunity to expand.

At present, online pharmacies have come up well in terms of convenience, speed, discounts, deliveries, privacy, and online consultancies from specialists.

Check out what an online pharmacy can offer to you

1. Better price

Online pharmacies offer better pricing than offline stores, with increased availability, discounts, and lower transaction and product costs. Once you upload your prescription, it also provides the best substitutes for branded medicines that cut your usual medicine bill to less than half.

2. Accessibility

Online pharmacies offer accessibility to people who find it hard to take out time of their busy routine to visit a pharmacy. It is also a boon for the disabled and people in secluded areas.

3. Provide media alerts 

Online pharmacies also feature media alerts that provide users with personalized medicine reminders and product discount information.

4. Comparison of products

Several options when you plan to buy a product or medicine. Therefore, online pharmacies make it easy for you to compare the products for their quality before buying.

5. Best substitutes

The doctor’s consultations in online pharmacies help you buy the best substitute for generic medicine. All you need to do is upload your prescription and avail yourself of a doctor’s consultation.

Read more- 3 Most Important Things to Consider Before Taking a Substitute Medicine

6. Inform you about the adverse effects of products

Online pharmacies also intend to provide the best information about the product, including its adverse effects, contraindications, drug interactions, and recommended dosage.

7. Non-medicinal products

Online pharmacies are a one-stop shop that also offers the best healthcare devices, supplements, ayurvedic and homoeopathic formulations, and medicines.

8. Teleconsultations

Many online pharmacies have registered pharmacists and expert doctors on payroll to provide teleconsultation to patients. This provision enables people with less motility to get consultations and prescriptions from expert doctors at home.

Read more- The Future of Telemedicine and Virtual Health Consultations

9. It takes care of your privacy and confidentiality

Online pharmacies are safe in terms of privacy and confidentiality. You can freely buy medicines for sexual diseases and other disorders that you don’t wish to disclose in a pharmacy store.

10. Keeps your health updated

Online pharmacies also provide updated health information on chronic diseases and their treatment options to widen the horizon of buyers so that they make wise choices while buying medicines. 

What do you need to ensure while using online pharmacies?

The sale of prescribed medicines in online pharmacies is covered under the Information Technology Act of 2000 and as per the laws, drugs can be sold only by a registered pharmacy that has a retail license and a team of registered pharmacists on the payroll. 

Further, a prescription for medicines from a registered doctor is mandatory for prescriptive drugs.  However, non-prescriptive drugs need no prescription to be sold online. The online orders can be taken only from areas where the pharmacy retail license applies. 

You also need to verify the authenticity of the online provider as well as the product and avoid spam sites that sell drugs without a legal prescription. Registered online pharmacies have well-established safety and quality benchmarks, uncomplicated privacy and security policies, a verifiable address, and a registered pharmacist on a roll. Last but not the least, a good awareness of online purchases of medicines can make your experience of buying medicine online a pleasant one.