Documentation Proposed framework

The legal framework, in the open

Delivery is the extension of the act of dispensing, not a separate commercial transaction. Everything else follows from that: here is the state of the law, without embellishment.

What the law says today

  • Dispensing to the public may only take place in pharmacies, except for the licence holder's sealed packet to care facilities (amended law of 25 November 1975, art. 3).
  • Internet sales are authorised only for non-prescription medicines (art. 3bis; Grand-Ducal regulation of 18 July 2018).
  • No law organises handover at a private home: bill 7383, which provided for handover “to persons at home”, was withdrawn from the docket in its entirety on 14 March 2024.

What Medelu proposes

  • Dispensing remains a pharmaceutical act, carried out by the pharmacy and extended to the home, borne by a custodian the pharmacy mandates and controls, under the responsibility of the licensed pharmacist.
  • Medelu is not asking for distance selling of prescription medicines. The government has written that it does not plan it; Medelu shares that position.
  • Write down the conditions of home handover, rather than letting it take hold without a framework. In the Netherlands, the law already defines dispensing as “delivering directly or having delivered”.
  • Each partner pharmacy's site is subject to the prior opinion of the Collège médical (code of ethics, art. 58): Medelu formally submits to this.
  • On-call duty is untouched. Medelu replaces neither emergency care nor the on-call service: the scheme is an access complement, not a reorganisation of duty coverage.

On the existing internet-sales regime

For non-prescription medicines, the Grand-Ducal regulation of 18 July 2018 sets precise obligations: site information (art. 13), presentation of the medicine (art. 15), personal account area (art. 16). The platform is designed to satisfy every point, the notifying party being each partner pharmacy, not Medelu: the platform serves the pharmacy, it does not replace it.

One point remains to be settled. The medical questionnaire required at the first order (art. 16, §2) is in tension with GDPR data minimisation (art. 5-1-c and 9). Medelu proposes a proportionate application: full questionnaire for prescriptions, minimal outside prescriptions; and will seek a ruling from the CNPD and the Ministry of Health before any launch. This process has not yet been initiated.

SOURCES · AMENDED LAW OF 25 NOVEMBER 1975, ART. 3, 3BIS, 3TER · GRAND-DUCAL REGULATION OF 18 JULY 2018, ART. 13, 15, 16, 18 · PHARMACISTS' CODE OF ETHICS, ART. 58, 62, 63 · GENEESMIDDELENWET (NL), ART. 1 · DOSSIER 7383, WITHDRAWAL OF 14 MARCH 2024 · GDPR, ART. 5 AND 9