Quality analytics of internet pharmaceuticals

Trading pharmaceutical products through the Internet poses several challenges related to legal responsibilities, good distribution practices, information content and patient use, financial implications, but also regarding product quality. One of the major concerns is the well-known phenomenon of counterfeited and/or substandard drugs commercialized through rogue Internet sites. Therefore, controlling and assuring the quality of those products has become an important and challenging task for the authorities. This review gives an overview of the different quality attributes that can be evaluated to have a complete understanding of the quality of the finished pharmaceutical product traded through the Internet, as well as the current analytical techniques that serve this objective. Aspects considered are labelling and packaging, physicochemical quality attributes, identification and assay of active substances and/or excipients, impurity profiling, biopharmaceutical testing and data interpretation.