LOOPHOLE ALLOWS TESTOSTERONE ON EU PRESCRIPTIONS

Due to a legal loophole, pharmacies in the UK will accept prescriptions for drugs such as testosterone even when they have been given out over the internet by doctors based in the European Union.

The Government directs pharmacists to accept prescriptions from EU doctors for testosterone and other powerful drugs, such as anabolic steroids, just as they would from a UK doctor. In fact, only EU prescriptions for drugs that are highly controlled due to their addictiveness and potential for misuse, such as morphine, are invalid in Britain.

Even after Brexit, the instruction to honour prescriptions for many drugs from European doctors has remained unchanged and the loophole remains.

Concerns are that the prescribed drugs may be inappropriate for the person ordering them, as often the doctors don’t have access to their NHS medical records. The foreign-based doctors are also outside the remit of the UK regulators.

For Gendergp, the loophole allows it to continue to offer its services to children as its prescriptions for testosterone are easily exchanged at high street pharmacies, despite having been issued by a doctor in Romania who has never even spoken to the patient for whom they are prescribing.