Present Status of Displaying Pharmaceutical Products for Sale on Flea Market Applications for Smartphones and the Responses to Illicit Selling by Service Providers

In Japan, a pharmacy or drug store license is required for selling pharmaceutical products. However, civilians without a pharmacy or drug store license are displaying pharmaceutical products for sale on a flea market application, which is illegal dealing. This study discussed the modality for implementing countermeasures for the illicit selling of pharmaceutical products. We extracted pharmaceutical products displayed for sale on three flea market applications (Mercari, Rakuma, Fril) on one day. One hundred and eighty-one pharmaceutical products were displayed (49 on Mercari, 86 on Rakuma, and 46 on Fril). There were 6.1% (11/181) domestically prescribed drugs, 69.1% (125/181) domestic OTC drugs, 23.8% (43/181) foreign-made prescribed drugs, and 1.1% (2/181) foreign-made OTC drugs. The seller could display the product for sale without confirming whether it is prohibited. We alerted the service providers of this illicit selling at flea markets at three different instances. The pharmaceutical product displays were deleted by the service providers at a rate of 55.1% (27/49) for Mercari and 51.2% (44/86) for Rakuma. The average number of drugs that were displayed for sale by each seller was 1.4 and the average number of total products that were displayed for sale by each seller was 100. The seller could have unintentionally displayed the pharmaceutical products for sale, without the knowledge that it is illegal. The service providers of flea market applications should create mechanisms to alert the sellers that displaying pharmaceutical products for sale is an illicit act and regulate these violations.