The newspaper sent an undercover reporter into Al Razi Pharmacy on Edgware Road, London, “last month”, in an attempt to purchase POMs without a prescription, it said in an article published yesterday (April 30).

Video footage shows pharmacist Anatolijus Kostiukevicius selling the reporter 60 Xanax pills and 100 tramadol tablets for £150 and £250 respectively.

The footage also shows Mr Kostiukevicius explaining that “this is [a] controlled drug that needs [a]...prescription”, and that “before two years ago it was like antibiotic[s]”.

The same pharmacy came under suspicion in 2012 after an investigation by the BBC uncovered the sale of amoxicillin and Viagra without a prescription. The superintendent pharmacist at the time was suspended from the register for 12 months for overseeing the sales.

GPhC investigating

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) confirmed to C+D this morning (May 1) that it is now looking into the new concerns about Al Razi Pharmacy raised by the Daily Mail investigation and has referred the latest case to the council’s fitness-to-practise committee.

GPhC chief executive Duncan Rudkin also thanked the Daily Mail for “raising with us the concerns identified through their investigation”.

“This is particularly useful as we do not have legal powers to carry out our own undercover investigations,” he said in a statement yesterday.

“We are investigating these concerns and will take any urgent action where required to protect the public,” Mr Rudkin added.

Al Razi Pharmacy was unavailable to comment at the time of going to press.