Medicines Act 1968

Provisions as to sale or supply of medicinal products

51General sale lists

(1)The appropriate Ministers may by order specify descriptions or classes of medicinal products, as being products which in their opinion can with reasonable safety be sold or supplied otherwise than by, or under the supervision of, a pharmacist.

(2)In this Act any reference to a medicinal product on a general sale list is a reference to a medicinal product of a description, or falling within a class, specified in an order under this section which is for the time being in force.

(3)An order under this section may designate any description or class of medicinal products specified in the order as being medicinal products which, in the opinion of the appropriate Ministers, can with reasonable safety be sold by means of automatic machines ; and any reference in this Act to a medicinal product in the automatic machines section of a general sale list is a reference to a medicinal product of a description, or falling within a class, so designated by any such order which is for the time being in force.

52Sale or supply of medicinal products not on general sale list

Subject to any exemption conferred by or under this Part of this Act, on and after such day as the Ministers may by order appoint for the purposes of this section (in this Part of this Act referred to as " the appointed day") no person shall, in the course of a business carried on by him, sell by retail, offer or expose for sale by retail, or supply in circumstances corresponding to retail sale, any medicinal product which is not a medicinal product on a general sale list, unless—

(a)that person is, in respect of that business, a person lawfully conducting a retail pharmacy business ;

(b)the product is sold, offered or exposed for sale, or supplied, on premises which are a registered pharmacy ; and

(c)that person, or, if the transaction is carried out on his behalf by another person, then that other person, is, or acts under the supervision of, a pharmacist.

53Sale or supply of medicinal products on general sale list

(1)Subject to any exemption conferred by or under this Part of this Act, on and after the appointed day no person shall, in the course of a business carried on by him, sell by retail, or offer or expose for sale by retail, or supply in circumstances corresponding to retail sale, any medicinal product on a general sale list elsewhere than at a registered pharmacy, unless the conditions specified in the following provisions of this section are fulfilled.

(2)The place at which the medicinal product is sold, offered, exposed or supplied as mentioned in the preceding subsection must be premises of which the person carrying on the business in question is the occupier and which he is able to close so as to exclude the public, unless either—

(a)the product is sold, offered, exposed for sale or supplied by means of an automatic machine and the product is a medicinal product in the automatic machines section of a general sale list, or

(b)the product is a veterinary drug.

(3)The medicinal product must have been made up for sale in a container elsewhere than at the place at which it is sold, offered, exposed for sale or supplied as mentioned in subsection (1) of this section and the container must not have been opened since the product was made up for sale in it.

(4)The business, so far as concerns the sale or supply of medicinal products, must be carried on in accordance with such conditions (if any) as may be prescribed for the purposes of this section.

54Sale of medicinal products from automatic machines

(1)On and after the appointed day no person shall sell, or offer or expose for sale, any medicinal product by means of an automatic machine unless it is a medicinal product in the automatic machines section of a general sale list.

(2)The appropriate Ministers may by order provide that no person shall by means of an automatic machine sell, or offer or expose for sale, any medicinal product to which the order applies unless the container in which it is sold, or offered or exposed for sale, complies with such restrictions as to the quantity of the medicinal product, or the number of medicinal products, which it contains as may be specified in the order.

(3)An order under subsection (2) of this section may be made either in respect of medicinal products generally or in respect of medicinal products of a particular description or falling within a particular class specified in the order.