Online pharmacy ordered to change ‘misleading’ adverts claiming to save NHS £300m

An online pharmacy company has been told not to use adverts with ‘misleading’ claims it made relating to £300m savings generated for the NHS if people switched from paper repeat prescriptions to online formats.

Several complaints were made to the Adverting Standards Agency (ASA) about the content of TV adverts and Twitter videos shared by Leeds-headquartered Pharmacy 2U.

The adverts talked about how their online services saved the NHS over £300m on prescription costs. They also talked about the service being “better for you, and better for the NHS.”

Members of the public challenged whether the claims that managing repeat prescriptions online could save the NHS “over £300m a year on prescription costs” and was therefore “better for the NHS” were misleading and could be substantiated.

The ASA investigated three issues, one of which was upheld. Two issues were informally resolved after Pharmacy 2U agreed to amend their advertising.

The ASA added: “Although we recognised that the UK healthcare sector was undergoing change and that online repeat prescription services had the capacity to save the NHS money, we considered that Pharmacy2U’s calculation, based on the annual savings if all pharmacies were paid the same rate as Pharmacy2U, was not currently a realistic or likely scenario.

The advertising standards body said it did not consider that Pharmacy2U had substantiated figures showing the NHS would currently save £300 million per year or more, if a significant proportion of the population switched from paper to online repeat prescription services such as theirs.

It added: “We therefore concluded that the claims “Saving… the NHS over £300 million a year on prescription costs” and “better for the NHS” were misleading and had not been substantiated.”

The ASA concluded its investigation, stating: “The ads must not appear again in their current form. We told Pharmacy2U to ensure that they held adequate substantiation for claims relating to savings generated for the NHS if people switched from paper repeat prescriptions to online repeat prescription services such as theirs.”

In response to the ASA’s investigation, Pharmacy2U said that saving the NHS money was better for the NHS, and there were well reported concerns over funding issues in the NHS.

They said they had substantiated figures with a calculation using publicly available information from the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC), which projected an annual saving if all pharmacies charged the NHS the same rate as Pharmacy2U.

They said they had reviewed the calculation provided to the ASA and said that, assuming all the base data was correct, they supported the projection that savings to the NHS would be in excess of £300m per year if all pharmacies dispensed at the same rate as Pharmacy2U.

A Pharmacy 2U spokesperson said: “Managing repeat prescriptions online saves both patients and the NHS time and money – a fact acknowledged by the NHS and the ASA. Given this acknowledgement and approval from Clearcast we are disappointed that the ASA has decided to uphold a complaint specific to the way the saving was presented in our advert, which had been generated using a calculation previously approved by the NHS.

“We will work with the ASA to amend the presentation of the cost saving, but the essence of the advertising – that online management of medicines could be better for patients and the NHS – remains. Online technology has transformed industries from retail to leisure and it is now making a significant and much-needed mark on healthcare, improving patient access to their medicines and helping ease the strain on the NHS.”