Pharmacist Kaleem Ahmad, registration number 2061614, was suspended for three months after the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) found that he had made more than £50k selling P-Meds on eBay.
In hearings held from February 3 to 10, the GPhC’s fitness-to-practise (FtP) committee heard that Ahmad sold thousands of medicines via the eBay platform without adequate procedures or systems in place “to ensure the safe supply of the medication to patients”.
According to the hearing document, Ahmad also dispensed thousands of prescriptions - including for high-risk medications - for a company called EU Meds without carrying out an adequate risk assessment or audit of its service.
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It added that neither EU Meds nor its prescriber were registered with a relevant UK regulator, and that Ahmad failed to make adequate clinical or identity checks and did not properly record private prescriptions dispensed for the company.
The committee also heard that on one occasion, Ahmad supplied the P-Med fluconazole to someone “via the Amazon store” without the information required to “assess the suitability of the medication” and without “adequate” pharmacist supervision.
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The regulator acknowledged the “absence of any previous regulatory concerns” regarding Ahmad.
But it stressed that there were “multiple breaches across three separate services” and that the financial gain from his actions was “substantial”.
Investigation and inspection
The GPhC confirmed that Ahmad is, and was at the time of the incidents, superintendent pharmacist, responsible pharmacist and director of Richmond Healthcare, trading as A+ Pharmacy in Birmingham.
It said that in early 2021, the pharmacy “started an online business” selling P-Meds via eBay and Amazon, and also started dispensing private prescriptions for EU Meds that June.
The same month, wholesaler Testerworld discovered that “unusually large volumes of P-Meds” were being ordered by Ahmad’s pharmacy and sold on eBay, and sales to the pharmacy were “restricted” as a result.
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The regulator added that Testerworld employees later visited the pharmacy, where Ahmad told them that the total value of the 8,884 items he had sold on eBay “came to £50,803.99”.
Then, in July 2021, the GPhC received an anonymous tip from a member of the public about “the ease with which they had been able to purchase medication from EU Meds”, and noted that the dispensing label on the prescription was that of A+ Pharmacy.
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It said that during a subsequent inspection of the pharmacy, Ahmad provided invoices submitted to UK Meds “which showed that he had dispensed 3,629 prescriptions” - including for high-risk drugs such as zopiclone, zolpidem, diazepam and modafinil. Ahmad told the inspectors that UK Meds and EU Meds “were the same company”.
The volume of prescribing “equated to between 50 and 150 prescriptions a day”, the regulator added, which was “additional to the pharmacy’s dispensing of NHS prescriptions”.
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The committee also heard that Ahmad said he “did not ever contact the prescriber directly”, and that inspectors noted “a large pile of prescriptions” - some dating back to earlier in the month - which “had yet to be entered into the private prescription register”.
The GPhC said it then issued the pharmacy with a notice of conditions forbidding it to “sell or supply any medicines against prescriptions issued by third party prescribing services that are not registered with a UK regulator”. It added that the inspection report for the pharmacy also “determined that a number of the standards had not been met”.
And in May 2022, Ahmad supplied P-Med fluconazole to someone via Amazon, the regulator said, without having “any information” about the patient prior to providing the medication.
“Developing insight”
The committee recognised that Ahmad has demonstrated “evidence of developing insight”, having made changes to his practice within the last four years, including training staff “to adopt a more risk-averse approach”.
It also noted Ahmad’s “personal circumstances” at the time of the conduct, saying it was “sympathetic to the life pressures” he was “dealing with in 2021”.
And it acknowledged Ahmad’s “full admissions to the allegations” and “cooperation in the investigative and regulatory process”, as well as the fact that his brick-and-mortar pharmacy had been compliant.
Patient risk
But the regulator stressed that with 20 years of experience as a pharmacist, Ahmad “should have been aware of regulatory risks”.
It pointed out that he had been “put on notice regarding regulatory concerns” and highlighted his “lack of awareness of the GPhC distance guidance”.
The risk to patients - especially regarding dispensing high-risk medicines for EU Meds, and “the nature and high volumes” of drugs supplied via online platforms without the “necessary governance” - was also an aggravating factor, it said.
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The committee decided that it was “necessary to highlight to the public and the wider profession” that Ahmad’s conduct was “unacceptable” - and that public confidence “demanded no lesser outcome in this instance”.
A short suspension would give Ahmad “sufficient time to reflect and further develop his insight before being allowed to continue to practise”, it said.
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The regulator concluded that Ahmad should be suspended for three months to “give him time to create a detailed reflection and develop insight” and to “return to the proper standard expected of him”.
Read the determination in full here.
