Unlicensed Hong Kong drugstores putting public at risk with misleading advice, pharmacists warn
Drugstores exploiting a regulatory loophole are putting the Hong Kong public’s health at risk, pharmacists warned , as they urged the government to crack down on retailers displaying “medicine” signs despite operating without a pharmacy licence.
Drugstores exploiting a regulatory loophole are putting the Hong Kong public’s health at risk, pharmacists warned today, as they urged the government to crack down on retailers displaying “medicine” signs despite operating without a pharmacy licence.
Many shops that display the word “medicine” in Chinese on brightly coloured signs at their premises only hold licences permitting them to sell certain simple drugs – such as flu medication and painkillers – but were posing as licensed pharmacies, concern groups said.
Chui added many members of the public do not know how to tell the difference between licensed and unlicensed pharmacies and were “often misled by these [medicine] signs.”
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He said that by law unauthorised drugstores were not allowed to issue prescribed medicine, such as treatment for heart disease, but staff would try to persuade customers to use other drugs instead of their approved medicines.”