C+D exclusively revealed last week that the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is "currently investigating" two Pharmacy2U television adverts and a tweet sent from the company’s account, after receiving 10 complaints “so far”.

Eight of these complaints were in direct response to Pharmacy2U’s claim that “managing repeat prescriptions online…can save the NHS over £300 million a year on prescription costs”, the ASA said.

The NPA told C+D it lodged a complaint with the watchdog “before Christmas” after seeing one of the adverts on television.

“We know from surveys of NPA members that Pharmacy2U’s marketing has confused and angered patients,” it said.

“This is the latest in a number of actions we have taken to confront the situation.”

The ASA stressed last week that it “has not come to a judgment on the case yet”. 

Pharmacy2U response

Responding to C+D’s story on the ASA’s investigation, Pharmacy2U said it is “collaborating” with the watchdog and has “substantiated all the claims made in the advert”.

“The ASA received a small number of queries on our TV advert,” Pharmacy2U said.

“All of the research was gathered from reliable, independent sources, which were used in the publication of The Repeat Prescription Report, authored by Dr Duncan Petty of the University of Bradford,” it added.