The French do not trust drugs sold online, whose origin and quality they doubt, according to a survey.
The online pharmacy has not entered the customs of the French. Authorized since 2013, the Internet sale of non-prescription drugs still generates a form of mistrust, according to a Harris Interactive survey for the 1001pharmacies.com site.
This drug sales website has in fact wanted to survey the habits of the French in terms of drug consumption, online shopping or even pharmacy attendance. One way, probably, to orient its marketing strategy. But there is still work to be done to attract customers to the Internet.
Self-medication champions
First observation: very many respondents practice self-medication. Thus, 93% of them say they reuse drugs already in their cupboards. The reasons given are time saving, practicality and savings. However, this phenomenon could decline with the switch to the drug sold individually, currently being tested in four regions of France.
In addition, 84% of those questioned dispense with a medical opinion and buy their medicines themselves without a prescription. This trend shows that “the French are becoming more and more autonomous in the management of their health,” believe the authors of the press release. Or, quite simply, that they do not have time to go to the general practitioner for a paracetamol.
For this website, these figures represent a boon: all the conditions are met for a flourishing market. All the more so since “only 38% of French people regularly go to pharmacies to buy their medicines; 62% of French people go to a pharmacy only a few times a year or even never, ”according to calculations by the polling institute.
Doubts about provenance and quality
But that doesn’t mean consumers are flocking to online sales, however. First, because they do not know much about this new access to drugs – one in four respondents does not know that buying on the Internet is authorized. Plus, they don’t trust him.
In fact, the majority of people questioned (56%) are not ready to buy their medicines without going through the pharmacy. Besides the lack of advice, the main reason given is the unreliability of the quality and origin of products sold online.
The French are also not completely wrong to be wary. On the Internet, one in two drugs offered would be counterfeit, according to the World Health Organization. All therapeutic classes are concerned – antibiotics, antiallergics or even cancer drugs.
Painting, rat death …
In most cases, the molecule is replaced by sugar or harmless substances. But counterfeiters can also add toxic products (paint as a dye, rat poison, etc.).
A few weeks after the publication of the decree legalizing the existence of online pharmacies, the government launched a campaign to help Internet users limit the risks. A list of authorized French sites for sale of drugs is available on the website of the Ministry of Health.
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