In an effort to help consumers make safe and informed decisions, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) has proposed that all trusted online pharmacies have .pharmacy as part of their domain name. The purpose of the designation is to allow only legitimate online pharmacies to use the domain name, separating them from the thousands of bogus sites on the Internet.
The initial evaluation by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers review board was positive, and the NABP will continue to work with ICANN through a testing and monitoring phase to ensure that the process can be effectively managed.
“Passing this hurdle in the .pharmacy application process is a significant success in NABP’s initiative to establish a safe online space that will benefit patients and the healthcare community around the world,” NABP president Karen Ryle said. “With the online distribution of counterfeit and substandard medications posing a growing threat to consumers, NABP is extremely pleased to move forward with its plans for the .pharmacy domain.”
Learn more about the safety of online pharmacies in our recent article, “Are Online Pharmacies Safe?“.
