The administrative court of Caen has authorized Philippe Lailler, the first web pharmacist, to continue selling drugs online in a room far from his pharmacy.
At the end of 2013, the Lower Normandy disciplinary chamber of the National Order of Pharmacists announced that it had issued a reprimand against the first web-pharmacist. The Caennais, Philippe Lailler, was accused of having advertised his pharmacy in the media. With this decision, the Order also reminded the pharmacist that he had always looked down on e-commerce. This will however continue since the elected Modem (deputy mayor of Caen) has just obtained a legal victory allowing the continuation of his e-commerce.
A warehouse 3.5 km from its pharmacy
The administrative court of Caen has indeed just canceled a formal notice from the Regional Health Agency ordering the pioneer of the cyber-pharmacy to close the warehouse which allowed him to ensure his activity of selling non-prescription drugs on Internet.
According to Agence France Presse (AFP), the decision rendered by the administrative court dates back to April 14, thus confirming the information revealed earlier by France Bleu Basse-Normandie. Philippe Lailler, who was the first to launch in France in the sale of drugs on the Internet, in November 2012, will therefore be able to continue to practice this activity in his warehouse of 400 square meters which is located in Fleury-sur-Orne (Calvados) , about 3.5 km from its dispensary.
Is the Public Health Code inadequate?
This decision is a snub for the local Regional Health Agency (ARS) which on October 1, 2014 asked it to regularize, within 9 months, the conditions for setting up its e-commerce. She had taken this formal notice based on the Public Health Code. This requires that the premises of a dispensary form a single whole.
According to Me Robert Apéry, lawyer for Philippe Lailler: “the whole debate before the administrative judge was to say: if you impose provisions of the Public Health Code taken at a time when there was no sale in online, you do not allow a pharmacist to develop ”this activity which requires adequate installations, given the quantities treated, underlined Me Robert Apéry. And the premises in particular can only be outside city centers because of the required area, and therefore far from pharmacies, he concluded.
Orders controlled by pharmacists
An argument that convinced the court while the public rapporteur, Xavier Mondesert, had taken a stand against the pharmacist’s lawyer. In conclusion, the administrative judges accept that the warehouse is located at a distance from the dispensary and that the activity of the cyber-pharmacist continues, “therefore of course, that the conditions relating to public health are respected”, a Me Apéry clarified to AFP.
“The court notes it well, saying that on this issue there was no concern, the LRA itself having recognized that there was no problem.” Buyers’ orders on the Internet are controlled by pharmacists.
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