Internet drugs still selling despite ban

By NAOMI LARKIN and MONIQUE DEVEREUX

Restricted drugs are still being sold without a prescription from a website linked to an Auckland pharmacist found guilty yesterday of professional misconduct for selling drugs over the internet.

The Herald last night bought 28 tablets of the hair-loss drug Propecia, a prescription-only drug not available across the counter in NZ.

Hundreds of different drugs - including Xenical for obesity and Prozac for depression - are available on the site that used to be run by Kerry Bell, owner of the Kingsland Pharmacy.

A disclaimer on the website says it is no longer owned by New Zealand interests, due to last year's law change making it illegal to export prescription medicines from New Zealand.

But it says the website's former management "are acting as consultants for the new owners and any inquiries regarding products, advice or status of orders should be directed to them."

New Zealand phone numbers and e-mail addresses are provided as the contact points for the website.

Yesterday, the Pharmaceutical Society ordered Kerry Bell to pay a $10,000 fine and suspended him from practising as a pharmacist for three years.

The move followed a report of the society's disciplinary committee which found Mr Bell guilty of misconduct after he sold large quantities of drugs without prescription to consumers overseas via the internet.

The drugs included Viagra for male impotency, Propecia and Xenical.

At a disciplinary committee hearing in December, Health Ministry witness Marie Scott said Mr Bell's pharmacy was linked to four internet sites. She also said that during parts of 1999, 11.4 per cent of all of New Zealand's Viagra sales, 24 per cent of its Propecia sales and 31.9 per cent of its Xenical sales went through his Kingsland Pharmacy.

Mr Bell must pay up to $50,000 of the cost of the committee inquiry and hearing conducted last year. He has 21 days to appeal.

Although it is easy to order restricted drugs, last year's law change means the website cannot supply them to New Zealand addresses. After a customer enters an order's destination as New Zealand, a message is displayed saying: "We are restricted to selling non-prescription drugs only to the country you have selected."

But a loophole allows the drugs to be sent to an overseas address and then redirected to New Zealand.

Several months' supply of most drugs can be bought at one time.

A Ministry of Health spokeswoman said yesterday that its investigation into Mr Bell was reopened this year after claims that he was again selling prescription drugs over the internet. "This is an investigation into a site [website] managed by him."

The spokeswoman declined to give further details until the investigation was completed.

Pharmaceutical Society president Bernie McKone said that although Mr Bell had been suspended, if he was again selling over the internet the organisation could not act unless the ministry had completed an investigation.

"We would have to have a finding of an activity and the people who monitor that activity are the Ministry of Health ... The society comes in at the end as a professional body."

Under the Medicines Act, suspension means Mr Bell is able only to own a pharmacy, not to carry out any other pharmaceutical business, said Mr McKone.

Mr Bell originally faced district court charges but an Auckland judge dismissed them because until the law was changed last November the Medicines Act allowed anyone to export medicines without a prescription.