The NPA has backed US plans to create a web domain for all online pharmacies as a "step forward" in the fight against illegal websites.  

Plans by US pharmacy regulator the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) to create a worldwide ‘.pharmacy' domain could be a more secure way for patients to identify legitimate pharmacy websites, said NPA public affairs manager Gareth Jones.  

But internet business Pharmacy2U told C+D it would not use the new domain and called for higher standards to regulate internet pharmacies instead.

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	Under plans outlined by the NABP at the World Pharmacy Congress in Dublin earlier this month (August 31-September 5), any legitimate pharmacy that wished to apply would be vetted before it could operate within the domain. Its website address would then end with ‘.pharmacy', rather than ‘.co.uk' or ‘.com'.

The domain had been approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - which oversees domain names - in May, the NABP said.  

Mr Jones said the initiative was "one way of controlling the identity of real pharmacies that have an online presence", although he questioned whether illegal pharmacies would still be able to create a fake website address that ended with ‘.pharmacy'.  

"Certainly in theory this should be a more secure way of identifying a genuine online pharmacy," he told C+D.  

The MHRA and the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) said they were aware of the plans, but were waiting for more details about how it would work in practice.  

The MHRA would not have the power to ensure that pharmacies joined the scheme and was unsure whether pharmacies would have to pay a fee to sign up, a spokesperson told C+D.  

Pharmacy2U managing director Daniel Lee said he would not transfer to the new domain because his business had already invested too much in developing other domains.  

"We were expecting the GPhC to develop standards or guidance on what is needed in order to regulate internet pharmacy. A number of times we have reviewed existing online pharmacies to find that they are in breach of the simplest standards," he said.  

The GPhC said it was widening the scope of its guidance on internet and distance-selling pharmacies to include mail order services. It planned to conduct further research in October and publish a first draft of the guidance at the end of the year, it told C+D.  

Under the Falsified Medicines Directive – the EU dictat to crack down on counterfeiting – all internet pharmacies will be legally obliged to display an EU logo and a link to their national regulatory body on their website by 2017.